A celebrity basketball tournament featuring scantily-clad women, scheduled to be held at a Newark public high school next month, has been canceled according to a district official.
The promotional video of the event showed women in thongs and shorts twerking in the gym.
Prior to the cancellation, the basketball tournament, called “Nuttin’ But Azz,” was scheduled to be held at Newark’s West Side High School on July 21. Big Fendi, a celebrity music manager, was set to host the event with tickets ranging from $50 to $500.
However, a promotional video for the basketball tournament shared on social media received widespread backlash. The video, called “NBA Baddies Basketball Tournament NJ,” showed twerking women in a high school gym.
In the video, organizers said $10,000 would be awarded to the best four teams in the competition at the Newark high school.
School officials said they weren’t aware of the promotional video and they thought the event was a community basketball tournament.
“This was supposed to be a community basketball event”
“No school or district official was aware of the video until it was posted on social media,” Newark Public Schools spokeswoman Nancy Deering said in a statement. “This was supposed to be a community basketball event sponsored by Councilman Kelly. No school or district official approved the activity depicted in the video or knew that an event at one of our schools would include such activity.”
“The promotion video that was filmed was absolutely horrible and was not authorized by Newark Public Schools or the West Ward Councilman’s Office,” Kelly said. “As a councilman and as a father, I would never allow this type of content to be filmed in any of our schools, and I don’t agree or promote it in any way.”
Deborah Smith Gregory, president of the NAACP’s Newark Branch said the responsibility ultimately is with the promoter, who should not be sensationalizing sex and Black women for profit.
“It should not have gotten to the point where they felt comfortable being able to sell tickets or do a promotion,” Smith Gregory said. “That is not what we need in our community. We do not need that type of exposure to young people in our schools. We do not need that type of exposure to adults.”