Cavaliers show in-arena hype video featuring man battering girlfriend for wearing Bulls gear

You think the Cavalier fans are classless?  The fish stinks from the head down.  Here's a video, produced by the Cleveland Cavaliers and shown in-arena:









Several journalists covering last night’s Cavaliers-Bulls game tweeted about a video shown in Cleveland’s arena. The most repeated phrase: “Tone deaf.”

Here’s an attempt to piece together the video’s content:

Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report:


Ethan J. Skolnick ✔@EthanJSkolnick
Strangest thing of night: when videoscreen showed skit of a guy in Cavs gear throwing girlfriend across room until she removed Bulls gear.
9:32 PM - 6 May 2015


Ethan J. Skolnick ✔@EthanJSkolnick
@nwilborn19 tone deaf



Nubyjas Wilborn @nwilborn19
@EthanJSkolnick he slams her, she's wearing an ice pack & she was to one to apologize while changing her behavior. Awful message.
9:38 PM - 6 May 2015



Allie Clifton of Fox Sports Ohio:


Allie Clifton @FSOAllieOop
@EthanJSkolnick I think it was a parody of this commercial... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YiTIYO-2A&sns=tw …
9:38 PM - 6 May 2015






Hardwood Paroxysm @HPbasketball
NO COME ON WHAT https://twitter.com/nwilborn19/status/596172151071182848 …



Nubyjas Wilborn @nwilborn19
@HPbasketball @EthanJSkolnick It was a play on a dirty dancing scene but instead of catching her, he slams her as she leaps to him (cont)
9:53 PM - 6 May 2015



Nubyjas Wilborn @nwilborn19
@HPbasketball @EthanJSkolnick next scene she's wearing an ice pack, apologizes & says now she's "All in"
9:53 PM - 6 May 2015



Domestic violence is something we haven’t taken seriously enough, including in the sports realm. Since Ray Rice, that has begun to change, but there’s still a long way to go.

I doubt the video – where the victim is the butt of the joke – would ever be funny and appropriate. But right now, in this environment, it’s definitely neither.

The Cavaliers marketing team seems to be full of questionable ideas. At least they didn’t go through with the Kevin Love arm sling giveaway idea.



bob
MY NOTE:  This is the "Kevin Love Sling Giveaway" he was talking about.  The Cav's marketing group are idiots. They can't come up with a better idea than playing off a video of a man tossing a woman across the room? Really? Where did they get their marketing degrees from? You know, I was kinda feeling a little sorry for them, because they lost Love in an unfortunate accident. Between the video and the slings, that goodwill is all gone now. Morons.


Cavaliers planned to give away 20,000 arm slings for Kevin Love, cancel
Dan Feldman May 6, 2015, 11:11 PM EDT


Rockets fans wear fake beards for James Harden. The Pelicans gave out wearable unibrows to support Anthony Davis.

And the Cavaliers had a really, um, interesting idea to show their appreciation of Kevin Love, who is out for the rest of the playoffs with a shoulder injury.

Tom Withers of the Associated Press:

The Cavaliers canceled a plan to give away 20,000 arm slings to fans to show support for injured starting forward Kevin Love, who is out for the rest of the NBA playoffs.

It’s not known what the team plans to do with the unused slings.

One of the most interesting off-court storylines of these playoffs is how Love, a potential free agent this summer, will assess his standing with the team as it plays without him.

How will he react to the team making light of his injury? Did his response have anything to do with the cancellation (they are reportedly fearful of him leaving)?

I have no idea.

Subprime Dan, aka Dan Gilbert is the Cavs owner. He owns subprime mortgage lender Quicken Loans, and also bought up half of Detroit for pennies on the dollar. Now he wants to fill Detroit with casinos.

I hope LeBron and Love just walk away, that would be a riot. Not the kind Subprime Dan's business ventures are likely to cause.

What a terrible affront to the game of basketball.  I stifled all 100 snickers my body wanted to emit when I first saw it.  It helps a bit if one realizes it's a parody of a parody—the currently running television commercial in which girl jumps on guy a la Jennifer Grey on Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing but, instead of her being raised into the air by the guy as in the movie, they both crash into furniture.

Probably in bad taste, maybe even sexist, and definitely bush league, but maybe just a tiny bit funny.

Sam

P.S. My wife and I tried this, and we're both welcoming cards sent to Room 328 of Brigham & Women's Hospital.