The witness, who identified himself as Aaron, told local station WTTG he initially thought the unidentified man was joking.
"I thought he was being extra," Aaron told the station.
But the man was dead serious and marched his way to the front desk, where police were called and later responded.
"When the cops came, he was like, 'Why are you wasting my time?'" Aaron told WTTG.
A video posted on social media showed the police officer saying "That's my first basketball foul" when asked if he'd ever been called for a similar incident before.
Managers at the gym confirmed the incident and response by police. Video footage of the incident is not available since the gym's basketball courts do not have video surveillance, according to the station.
The other pick-up players simply returned to the game after the incident, Aaron said.
The Huffington Post called it the "softest moment in the annals of recreational sports" while American sports website SB Nation had its fun with the "whiny" man. "Stop being idiots and calling the cops over every little thing," James Dator wrote.
Barstool Sports was even more savage. "Who the f*** calls the cops for getting fouled too hard?" the website wrote. "Marching to the front desk to call the police and wasting their time from serving and protecting people from actual crimes because someone laid a hard screen on you is next level crazy."
Social media was quick to roast the man once the story spread across the internet, with the hashtags #FlagrantFreddy and #CheckedCharlie doing the rounds.
