Last night, in the Cavs- Grizzlies game, after Tristan Thompson and Jae Crowder had gotten into it earlier in the game and had received double technicals, Thompson was on the line to take a free throw and Crowder walked in front of him. Thompson slapped him on the backside, but the ref saw this as a problem and T'ed Thompson up and tossed him from the game because of receiving two technicals.
Thompson claims he and Jae have history being teammates in Cleveland and was just giving him a friendly tap, like sports guys do.
Meanwhile, earlier in the week, after LSU had won the national title, security were in the locker room when Odell Beckham, Jr. gave a butt slap to a cop. He said he was doing it playfully as a joke because the security guy/cop was being a dink trying to enforce a no smoking indoors Louisiana law because the players were lighting up victory cigars after winning a national championship. Another security guy/cop told the players not to worry about it, it was okay...considering they just won a title. The dink cop said he wanted to get violent with OBJ for the slap, reported him to NOPD and an arrest warrant was issue. NOPD went so far as to ask for the charge of sexual assault, but that was not allowed by a judge.
In Wednesday's game against the Pistons, it was Celtics ball in on the sidelines when people with Donnie Walhberg spilled a drink, delaying the game while the spill was cleaned. Upon it being cleaned, the guy cleaning it passed by Jaylen Brown, who gave him a butt slap. No controversy or anything else regarding this happened.
I played football and baseball in high school and some baseball in college. The butt slap was always nothing more than a sign of encouragement or respect for your play on the field. But never was it taken out of the game and never was it done to a member of the opposite sex. It was just a teammate thing. I got one from a coach in football after an interception I made, but never thought anything of it. No big deal. He was just telling me "Good job!"
But that was the 80's and the butt slap seems to have migrated out of sports and into society more. And in modern society, you need to respect another person's space and not touch people without their consent.
Three instances above of the butt slap. One in a game amongst friends that a ref viewed in a bad light because, perhaps, that ref believes in today's laws and society that any contact is unwanted and unapproved contact. Another out of game that OBJ said was a joke because they guy was being a jerk...kinda telling the guy to lighten up. Another that happened in clear view of thousands in the stands and maybe hundreds of thousands on television where the guy that got butt slapped took Jaylen's act as a congrats on a job well done.
So, my question is, in today's world and society, should sports do everything they can to kill the culture of the butt slap because outside of sports(and given what happened to Thompson, sometimes in sports) a butt slap can be looked at as an assault, even possibly a sexual act/assault? Or should athletes learn to just do the butt slap to teammates only who perceive the move as a sign that the other player is encouraging them or telling them they made a good play?
Or should society and certain people just chill and learn to understand where the move is coming from?
Thoughts?