NBA star Iman Shumpert has cleared up reports that he was livid with Fox's Empire after they allegedly copied his real life relationship with singer Teyana Taylor for Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) and Tiana's (Serayah McNeill) storyline.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers star spoke with TMZ Sports Thursday and shared his thoughts regarding the speculation.

"Fans of the show and friends have told us on many occasions that couple favors us be we do not all feel that our lives are being copied/stolen."

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He went on to "apologize" to everyone involved in the series.

"They're just being professionals and don't deserve slander that's not what I was trying to portray and I have to be more careful with my choice of words."

He went on to slam the writer who sparked the speculation and said his words were exaggerated.

"The writer took a 2-3 minute convo of locker room talk after a GREAT TIME WIN and made it look like a sit down interview and it wasn't. He twisted words to get the point he wanted to get across. This is not that serious and though we don't watch the show we are not against it."

Shumpert's comment come just hours after SB Nation published his statements from the interview.

They quoted the athlete as saying, "They're using my girl's character, her style, her look and she's not getting anything for it. They didn't even change her name. They could have at least let my girl audition for the part instead of stealing her character completely...And come on man, they're really using a guy with a flat top like me. Come on. That's ridiculous. They never called us. We were blindsided. We found out by our family and fans when the show aired."

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Empire Show, Fox, Television