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A basketball has received huge amounts of criticism online after pretending to give a PlayStation 5 to a child before immediately taking it from him.
Charlotte Hornets, who currently sit 13th out of 15 in the Eastern Conference, invited people on to the court during a break in play in the second quarter of the Monday night (December 16) game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Its mascot, Hugo the hornet, was sat on a chair dressed as Santa Claus for the Christmas season, and was handing gifts over to young fans who had written a letter addressed to St. Nick.
One of those kids had asked for a PS5, and so after a presenter read out his letter, a cheerleader handed a bag to the mascot who took out the console and presented it to him.
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The young man couldn't believe his luck that he'd received the gift and well, apparently he shouldn't have as a member of the NBA team's staff then reportedly snatched the present off him immediately after exiting the court and instead replaced it with a jersey.
The video was posted on social media by a friend of the child's uncle, who took his nephew to the game, and once news spread to Twitter, people were less than impressed.
"Mannn that’s bogus as hell," one person wrote, while another said: "Bro what?! That’s shameful."
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And a third commented: "Disgusting. Just give the jersey publicly don’t front like you’re giving some amazing gift."
Talking to Queen City News, the kid's uncle, Alexei Phillips said someone from their team had reached out to ask if they'd like to participate in something on the court.
Phillips said that he and another parent were informed what was going to happen before they went out, saying: "They just said they’re not going to keep what they get, however, they’re going to get a jersey afterward."
However, he said he still didn't quite understand what was going on and still thought his nephew would be getting his PS5.
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He continued: "Then we get kind of like all the way to the backstage and, you know, the guy who kind of found us in the first place, he starts to kind of take it away. And everybody thinks he’s joking because nobody would think he’d be taking the PS5 from the kid."
After he 'made it clear that he wasn't joking', Phillips said it got 'pretty awkward', adding: "Essentially, once he took it away, everybody was kind of, you know, the dancers and stuff were kind of like in shock."
The Hornets have since released a statement apologizing to for the situation, which read: "During last night's game there was an on-court skit that missed the mark. The skit included bad decision making and poor communication. Simply put, we turned the ball over and we apologize.
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"We have reached out to the family and are committed to not only making it right but to exceeding expectations. We will be providing the fan with the PS5 that he should have taken home last night along with a VIP experience to a future game.
"Our goal is and will remain to elevate the guest experience for every person that enters Spectrum Center, and to show our fans how much we appreciate their relentless support."
Phillips says there's 'no hard feelings', however, he said they could have avoided it by letting people know they wouldn't be keeping the gifts.
"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." he said.
Topics: NBA, Social Media, Christmas
Joe Yates