CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WJZY) — What was supposed to be a festive "skit" during the Charlotte Hornets game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday ended up earning the Hornets ‘Grinch’-like jeers on social media.
A post on X that had reached over 3.4 million views by Tuesday night shows a young fan being gifted a PlayStation 5 by the Hornets mascot Hugo, who was dressed in a Santa Claus costume. However, Adam Turner, who goes by @StanUsmnt on X, explains that once the cameras were off, the Hornets took the PS5 away and gave the young fan a jersey instead.
Nexstar's WJZY spoke with Turner to figure out what exactly happened, and he put us in touch with the family of the fan in the video.
“I was like, texting with a few friends of mine and sent them the video,” said Alexei Phillips. “They were like, 'Oh, Jack got a PlayStation 5, that's awesome.' I had to kind of explain to them that actually, no, they took it back.”
Phillips is a Hornets season ticket holder and had taken his 13-year-old nephew Jack to the game, as well as a few other family members. Phillips said early on in the game, they were approached by a member of the Hornets staff to participate in something on the court.
“Someone from their fan team kind of reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, do you guys want to be on the court with Hugo?’ and we said, 'Sure,'” Phillips said.
Phillips explained that they weren’t given any other information until right before they went out onto the court when someone from the Hornets whispered to him and another parent what was going to happen.
“They just said they're not going to keep what they get; however, they're going to get a jersey afterward,” Phillips recounted.
Phillips said he still didn't quite understand what was going on and, more importantly, no one had the opportunity to explain to Jack that he wouldn't get to keep his gift. Then, once Jack was off camera — with what he thought was his PS5 — the real confusion set in.
“At this point, everybody thinks that Jack is going to get this PS5, including all the dancers, all the cheerleaders, everybody basically, like, starts congratulating him,” Phillips explained. “There was even a Hornets dancer who actually gave him the PS5. … She starts to pack it up for him in the bag. 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."
But that’s exactly what happened, Phillips said.
“It got pretty awkward because eventually he had to make it clear that he wasn't joking. And even though they told me (about the jersey) I still wasn't quite sure what he was going to be keeping or not keeping,” said Phillips. “Essentially, once he took it away, everybody was kind of, you know, the dancers and staff, were kind of like in shock.”
The good news is, just like in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," this story has a happy ending.
In a statement shared with WJZY on Tuesday, the Hornets walked back the mistake.
"During [Monday'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. 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."
WJZY has confirmed that the team did reach out to Philips and Jack's family to apologize and make amends.
For Phillips, he says there are no hard feelings but he believes the Hornets could have avoided the sting of Monday night had they not tried to give off the image to fans that the kids would be keeping the gifts they got on the court.
“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?” said Phillips.
