The 76ers, in a dispute with a bank that sponsors their arena but not the team, made the arena name on the court comically difficult to read.
Their initial idea was even more ridiculous.
76ers CEO Scott O’Neil, via Jared Shelly of BizPhilly:
“Our original idea was, for the court logo, to put it in invisible ink — but the lawyers wouldn’t go for it. I figured we could do a little black light in the intros to show it,” said O’Neil. “But the lawyers didn’t go for it, they’re not sure that would live to the letter of the law.”
Citing my recent BizPhilly article that characterized the Sixers actions as “passive-aggressive,” O’Neil offered a correction: “This is aggressive. We’re not very passive-aggressive. We don’t understand that language.”
O’Neil’s last quote belongs in the clarification hall of fame.
The real winner in this dispute, as always: lawyers. They got paid to analyze whether invisible ink and, presumably, the exact size of font that would satisfy the contract.