When Paul George, Gerson Yabuseli, Justin Edwards, and Adem Bona decided to catch Friday's edition of WWE SmackDown at the Philadelphia 76ers' home, the Wells Fargo Center, they likely believed it was going to be a nice moment of fun Philly PR.
Sure, the 76ers are pretty bad at the moment, with fans turning their attention from the playoffs in April to the NBA Draft in June, but surely having a quarter of the team in attendance at SmackDown would get a positive reaction from their hometown fans, who love local athletes more than most.
… yeah, if that was the goal, it really didn't go as planned, as the sold-out crowd used the opportunity to boo the quarter – but mostly Paul – to show their dissatisfaction with how the season has been going.
Expand Tweet
Related NewsArticle continues below
Oh no, you can see Justin Edwards' positive reactions sour as the clip goes on, with the reserve forward laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.
Widely expected to be one of the better teams in the NBA this year after handing out nearly a billion dollars in money during the free-agent period, the 76ers have fallen from grace in a major way since October, with the franchise seemingly hitting their head on every rung along the way.
Joel Embiid hasn't been healthy all year and has officially been shut down for the rest of the season. Jared McCain looked like a certified star before seeing his own season end prematurely with a torn meniscus. And as for George? Well, he simply doesn't look like a max player any longer, even if he's had to play through a few injuries of his own. Outside of the emergences of Quentin Grimes and Yabuseli, this year has been a real bummer, especially since the team only owns their pick if it falls between 1-5 this summer.
Could the Philly crowd have been cool, trusted the process, and cheered on their guys for being very good at playing very badly? Sure thing, but do you know what? Fans are talking about the boos online, and even if it wasn't an orchestrated event, it's safe to say the results couldn't have gone better for the unhappy Wells Fargo Center crowd.