I’ll be honest; the message in this commercial is a good one, and I will agree that the world could use some more positive messages. But the scenario used in the commercial couldn’t be any more further from any fathomable truth that could potentially happen in this little place we all live in, called the real fucking world. And for that reason, this commercial definitely warrants the designation as certainly being a stupid commercial.
It’s the championship game, and tensions are high. The protagonist, Alex’s team is down in the waning seconds, but a late score closes the gap to one. On the ensuing play, Alex’s team employs the full court press, and they successfully harass an opposing player into flinging a haphazard pass, which is supposedly touched by the guy that Alex was guarding. The referee awards the ball to Alex’s team, and his teammates and the crowd are going nuts because now they have a chance to win the game. Alex’s team calls timeout, so they can put together a play to try and win the game. And this is where the unbelievable fiction comes into play.
Alex becomes overwhelmed by his conscience, and he admits to having being the one who correctly tipped the ball out of bounds, and that the ref had made a mistake, clearly. As he fesses up to his teammates, his teammates give him the WTF treatment, and essentially tell him to shut the fuck up. The coach caves into Alex’s moral dilemma, and tells his team to prepare to play defense, and for Alex to go correct the ref. As the team disperses, the teammates all incredulously mock thank Alex for throwing the game, making Alex rightfully feel like a shithead. The coach, repressing his own feelings off being a dickface, shows pity on Alex and tells him that he did the right thing, making Alex feeling all warm and fuzzy, but still a shithead.
“Sportsmanship”. Yeah, my ass.
Here’s what would happen in the real world.
Alex tells everyone that he touched the ball. Everyone still tells him to shut the fuck up and that he’s a shithead, which is correct. But the coach sure as fuck doesn’t back him up in the real world. He gets told that referees make mistakes all the time, and that this mistake is making up for some other time that their team got boned in the past. Alex will plead and argue, prompting the coach to bench his ass for being a shithead. Alex, overwhelmed by his conscience, defies everyone and tells the ref that he touched the ball.
The ref, flabbergasted by the fact that someone would be so silly and stupid to give up a crucial possession, is skeptical, and after eyeing Alex, peers towards Alex’s coach. Naturally, coach shakes his head in disagreement, and states that Alex is acting irrationally from the pressure of the situation, and that he’s not telling the truth. Upon hearing this, the ref decides to go with the normal acting coach, and ignores Alex’s pleas. Alex is a kid and a shithead, and should not be trusted over an adult.
Alex’s teammates, without Alex take the floor. Despite having the momentum though, they were still down at the time. It’s not like they were guaranteed to win just because they got the ball back. And for all intents and purposes, they succeeded in drawing a shooting foul, but since all basketball players of today are lazy shitheads and don’t practice free throws, they miss both, and Alex’s team loses anyway.
Not only are Alex’s teammates unhappy because they lost, they’re unhappy that their shithead teammate Alex tried to sabotage it from the get go. In the locker room, they beat Alex up while coach pretends to not see it like when a warden is counting his bribe money while the inmates beat up a mark. And when they’re done, coach mercilessly cuts Alex from the team next year, even though he’s a senior, because his actions have prompted coach to withdraw his influence on the school to continue to pass him in spite of the fact that he was coasting on basketball talent, and that the result of those actions would cause Alex to have to repeat the 12th grade, but without the athletic assistance.
Naturally, Alex is dumb, and cannot handle a second senior year, and drops out. And without at least the high school level graduation, he is incapable of getting any reliable employment anywhere. And it turns out that he wasn’t that great at basketball, because when he tried to ball for money on the blacktops, he would get owned by the more talented, experienced hustlers. Eventually, he turns to drugs since if you’re not playing ball on the courts, you’re playing pills and blunts.
Long story short, he ends up becoming a druggy, going to prison, and ends up getting beat to death by a dude named Marvin.
All because he had an overwhelming urge to tell the truth when it really wouldn’t have mattered.
That’s reality, and not another stupid commercial.
