Partying in
Panties
NBA Dance Squad Pictures Exposed
By Daniel Muniz
When salacious pictures of the Royal Court, the dance squad of the
NBA basketball team for the Sacramento Kings, surfaced on the
Internet it caused quite a sensation as well as being a public
relations embarrassment for the team. The digital images were about
the girls partying and having a good time. However, a couple of the
photos showed that some of the members of the team may have been
having too good of a time since they were only wearing their bra and
thong panties while another image appeared as if two girls were
about to make out.
Of course, the dance squad did not want these vivid images
disseminated to the public.
Before
After
They were private pictures
of their frolicking that were meant to stay private. In fact, the
photos were a bit old because some of the girls were no longer part
of the current squad which why is they were surprised and shocked
that the images were still around when they lit up cyberspace.
Generally speaking, the content of the Royal Court photos is nothing
out of the ordinary.
A cursory glance of Facebook, MySpace, Webshots, and other
similar web sites show plenty of young adult women partying in their
underwear (or nothing at all). In fact, millions of women and
teenage girls relish the opportunity to have their sexually explicit
photographs distributed on the web. And many of them would be
thrilled if their images on the Internet were to gain even more
widespread exposure and notoriety.
The issue arises when the individuals are public figures
representing a commercial enterprise or a public institution.
Then all of a sudden, such pictures open themselves to the seedy
tabloid nature of ridicule and scorn.
After all, the press loves
extremes. The media doesn’t care if something is too ordinary, such
as the dance team of a professional sports organization routinely
performing in front of crowds. That is mundane and uneventful and
does not capture the public’s attention. Now if the same group of
girls is running around in their bra and panties and getting drunk,
then that becomes a big story that can be splashed on the front
page.
And since the dance squad is connected to a multimillion dollar
franchise, the story also puts other people in the spotlight. Not
that they aren’t used to being under the media’s glare, but some of
these people want glitz and glamour instead of being inundated with
tawdry and unseemly attention. And that is because they want their
organizations to receive positive public relations exposure instead
of stuff that tarnishes their image.
Below is the statement that the Sacramento Kings organization issued
to their local paper, the Sacramento Bee:
"The photos of Sacramento
Kings Dance Team members circulating on the Internet were published
without the knowledge or permission of the Dance Team members or the
Sacramento Kings, and they do not adhere to the principles and
values of the Sacramento Kings organization."
Gavin Maloof, co-owner of the Kings also explained to a sportswriter
of the Sacramento Bee:
"We obviously don't condone
that type of behavior. We'll deal with it internally."
It is not that these women cannot ever have a good time or get drunk
on their own personal time. In fact, the same people who issued
these statements probably don’t care what these girls do in their
free time or who they do it with. What they do care about is the
sensationalism that can be exploited from incidents like this.
In this example, the image of the Royal Court could be shot if
enough media outlets turn these women into bimbos. So what was once
an innovative marketing tool for public relations now becomes
radioactive. Fair or unfair doesn’t matter because the press has an
insatiable appetite for juicy stories. And that is why the sports
team and its owner had to mete out the condemnations. Goodwill takes
years to cultivate but it can also be taken away in a snap so this
potential threat had to be nipped in the bud before it got out of
hand.
However, there is another subtle factor in play that a lot of people
don’t truly consider.
When someone snaps a picture of you in your
drunken revelry while you are only wearing your underwear, there is
always the chance that it is going to be used against you in the
future. Now millions of people really don’t care because they are
never going to be celebrities or public figures. They are just
having a good time so that is not a consideration. And besides,
there are already tens of millions of such images already floating
around in cyberspace so this overwhelming presence actually produces
a form of anonymity.
Perhaps that rationale is sufficient because one photograph (or a
handful) is only
a grain of sand on the beach.
Most of the Pictures Were Actually Pretty Tame
But for the people who are going to become public figures or be in a
position that requires trust from the public (like a teacher), then
that means that they have to be on their good behavior all the time.
Technology like the Internet and the abundance of cheap digital
cameras makes this kind of exposure possible. And even when such
material is in a password-protected site, there are always ways for
it to become readily available to the public.
And that is something that the Royal Court dance team found out the
hard way.
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