A limited-edition board game called Unethical Hoops uses an Operation-style design where players use tweezers to remove objects from small holes. Touching a metal border triggers a buzzer that signals failure. The game portrays players as members of an opposing basketball team trying to steal the ball from a cartoon character resembling Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The buzzer is framed as a referee whistle for fouls. A lawyer for Gilgeous-Alexander sent a cease-and-desist letter to Underdog, demanding the company stop distributing the game and destroy all copies. The demand follows renewed scrutiny of Gilgeous-Alexander’s reputation for drawing foul calls at minimal contact.
"Done in the style of the children's classic Operation, Unethical Hoops requires players to use tweezers to pull objects from tiny holes, with the slightest touch of a metal border setting off a buzzer indicating failure. Instead of pretending to be doctors attempting to remove body parts from a patient, however, Unethical Hoops players act as members of an opposing basketball team trying to take the ball from a cartoon character who very much resembles Gilgeous-Alexander. In this game, the buzzer represents the whistle of a foul-calling referee."
"“Shai has made hoops all about foul baiting and now you're stuck guarding him in Underdog's new board game,” a description reads on the game's website. “Don't get baited. Steal the ball without getting whistled.”"
"Last week, a lawyer representing the two-time reigning NBA MVP sent a cease-and-desist letter to sports prediction market and fantasy sports company Underdog that includes a demand for the destruction of all copies of the cheeky and extremely limited-edition game Unethical Hoops."
"In a letter dated May 22, attorney Eric Fishman of ArentFox Schiff LLP demanded that Underdog “immediately and permanently cease and”"
Read at Los Angeles Times
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