Aussie ad slammed for insulting black U.S. players
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An Australian TV commercial has been slammed for its portrayal of black American basketball players as bed-hopping womanizers, The Courier-Mail reported Saturday.
Team USA is in Turkey trying to win the FIBA World Championship for the first time since 1994.
The ad is set in the confines of a house, and begins with Australia national team guard Adam Gibson sliding across a breakfast table scattering bowls, while a chandelier is shattered by a ball.
It finishes with new Sydney Kings recruit Taj McCullough catching the ball and dishing off a pass as he lands between a white couple under the covers in bed.
He turns his back on the man and flashes an amorous glance at the woman.
"After what black American players have put into the league from the start in 1979, being stereotyped in that image is inappropriate and below the belt, pardon the pun," said former player Cal Bruton, a 1985 Brisbane Bullets title-winner who represented Australia after becoming naturalized.
"The only black American seen in the clip is hopping into bed with a white couple and what does that have to do with basketball?"
Brisbane Bullets legend Leroy Loggins said the bedroom image was a "sad" attempt at humor and sent a "poor message to young people."
The NBL removed a link to the ad from its official website Friday.
Former Sydney Kings player Bryant Matthews -- an American import -- spent time in jail for sexual assault when he was an unwanted third person in bed with a couple in Sydney in 2006.
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