Gift-giving is a stressful privilege. I’m thrilled that I’m able to gift loved ones things they want or like but figuring those things out can be a real challenge. Some of my family is intentionally guarded about what they want. Others ask for so many different things, and it can be overwhelming. My twelve-year-old niece asked for a cardboard cutout of Dwayne The Rock Johnson and I’ve never purchased a gift more quickly. What I did NOT do was purchase it with the intention of taking it away from her moments after she received it. That would be an insane thing to do!
Right?? Imagine, if you will, being given an extravagant gift. Not only is it expensive, it’s something you very much want. Also, thousands of people are there watching as a giant purple and teal insect hands you the gift. You’re f***ing thrilled because it’s awesome and also you’re thirteen years old. Then, as soon as you step off the court (this is at a basketball game), someone approaches, takes the PS5 from you, and that’s… just kinda it!
Alexei Phillips took his nephew to see the Charlotte Hornets play the Philadelphia 76ers. “Someone from their fan team kind of reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, do you guys wanna be on the court with Hugo?’ And we said sure,” Phillips explained to Queen City News. Really think about that for a moment. You’re plucked from the crowd and told you get to go on the court with the mascot. That’s good enough! But don’t pull a bait and switch!!
Phillips mentioned that a staffer whispered to him, moments before going out, that the kid wouldn’t be able to keep the gift but would get a jersey instead. That’s an absurd exception to make moments beforehand, but to tell the adult and not the kid is even f***ing worse. Phillips put it pretty succinctly, saying, “The funny thing is, if he had just gone out in the first place and they just gave him a jersey out there on the court, he would have been stoked, you know?” Yes, Alexei!
The Hornets have been in damage control ever since. They offered to have the kid and his parents back for a VIP experience. They’ll also be gifting him a PS5. That’ll be nice, but the embarrassment the kid suffered will linger longer than a console that will be obsolete in two years. As Phillips noted, it wasn’t just the on-court experience that was bad. “It got pretty awkward,” he told Queen City News. “Because [the staffer] had to make it clear he wasn’t joking.” I do not envy the staffer who had that job, to say the least.
