In Defense of AT&T’s ‘What a Pro Wants’ Ad Featuring NBA Stars

PMaybe the ad, which has been running continuously since the start of March Madness, just irritates you. Maybe right now it’s haunting your dreams, your soul, every damn fiber of your DNA.

If you’ve watched a lot of sports on television in recent months, you know what location in question: two stylish guys wearing dark jackets, who are young Oklahoma City Thunder basketball players Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren – although you might not know this if you’re not a knucklehead – leaving a hotel for the team bus, while singing a take on Christina Aguilera’s 1999 hit “What a Girl Wants.” In the ad, Holmgren tells Gilgeous-Alexander — often referred to simply as SGA — that AT&T “just sent me a notice about the best plan for me.” After SGA approval, Holmgren says, “They know what a professional wants.” SGA responds: “What a professional needs”. Then the singing. And, for viewers, shrinking.

Or crying. Or screaming.

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The line of annoying ads that have upset sports fans over the years is longer than Holmgren’s Wingspan. From Budweiser Hey guys for Coors Light “A toast to football” hymn– “with the twiiiiins”, egads – for various cars and fast food outletsEveryone has a most hated list.

But the vitriol directed at “What a Pro Wants” stands out.

“I’m ready to call it quits,” David Ubben, national college football writer for The Athletic, said. he wrote on X. “Aided in part by being forced on basketball fans for months, the Chet/SGA ‘What a Pro Wants’ is the worst commercial in history.” Dan Wolken, national sports columnist for USA today, he wrote: “It’s the one issue that unites all Americans right now. The commercial is an abomination and I increasingly recoil every time I am forced to watch it.” In response to the announcement, CBS Sports host Ashley Nicole Moss tweeted a GIF of Jim Carrey pulling his hair and going crazy in the movie Liar liar.

It’s not just sports journalists who publicize the commercial. An NHL fan wrote on Reddit that “I’ve seen this at least 30 times [during] the first week of the playoffs. It will be two long months. (A spokesperson for AT&T confirms that the commercial is scheduled to run around the NBA Finals, which usually ends around the same time, in mid-June or so, as the Stanley Cup Finals.) “Congress needs to intervene,” he wrote . another user Memes used to represent disgust include someone throwing a flat screen off a terrace, Homer Simpson face melting, various forms of screaming and sobbing and worse.

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“I don’t know about you, but my brothers and I are constantly doing duets together, just singing on the way to the team bus,” says Ubben, who notes that friends have started actively rooting against the Thunder because of the commercial. “I think this happens all the time. There’s nothing about it that makes sense or that I like. And we had to watch it 9,000 times. I can not take it anymore.”

I don’t remember a sports ad generating so much negative noise. And normally, I would be ready to accumulate. Pooping on ubiquitous corporate advertising is a national pastime.

But here, the hatred seems misplaced.

I get it – the ad is everywhere. These guys can’t sing. And even commercials that are somewhat charming at first glance get old.

But when I first saw the AT&T commercial during March Madness, I was blown away. Not because of the creative concept, but because of who was in it. SGA and Chet may not be as familiar to the general public as, say, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. Some of the online criticism has hit home – who the hell are these guys making me suffer with an out-of-tune earworm? But both SGA and Holmgren are brilliant young players for a rising, exciting and relatively undercover team. SGA, 25, is a genuine MVP candidate who has an uncanny ability to slide past defenses designed to stop him, changing speed and creating separation from opponents that allows him to score at will. He averaged 30.1 points per game for the small-market Thunder, the team that won first place in the Western Conference and just beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round. The Thunder plays team ball and defends. SGA makes its fair share of shots, but was 54% efficient from the field this season, finished in the top 20 in assists and tied for the league lead in steals per game. No player on the OKC roster is over the age of 25 and the team shares a young, carefree camaraderie, as evidenced by their tradition of rallying around the game’s star during his post-game interview and barking.

Holmgren, meanwhile, would have won Rookie of the Year most seasons; he will likely finish second behind another long-limbed unicorn, 7-foot-4-inch Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. But Holmgren, who is 7 feet, 1 inch and spent a season playing for Gonzaga, displays guard skills reminiscent of another tall, lanky star who once shined in OKC — Durant — while also protecting the rim. Holmgren, 22, finished second in the NBA in total blocks. He appeared in all 82 regular season games.

I’ve been following the Thunder all season, in the wilds of NBA League Pass. (Thunder-Hornets on Channel 273 tonight? I’m there.) Then the commercial gave me a strange sense of pride. Aww, my boys are getting their due. After the 300th viewing, I’m not so excited about it. At this point I ignore it. The location certainly doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother the rest of the universe.

From a sports marketing perspective, of course, first impressions are important. If you represent SGA and Chet, perhaps it’s not ideal to introduce your clients to a mass audience in an ad that’s driving a lot of people crazy? On the other hand, their faces and names are now very familiar to the general public. “This is increasing exposure and stickiness,” says Jason Goldstein, marketing agent for WME Sports, which represents Holmgren. “It was an opportunity, with his partner, to continue to show who he is off the court.”

As a fan of Christina Aguilera? Not necessarily: Holmgren, who was born more than two years after the release of “What a Girl Wants,” told PEOPLE in March, “To say I ever sang this song or heard it in the car, I would be lying. I didn’t know the words before the appointed day.”

“Our focus is on creating work that can’t be ignored,” writes Marc Burns, vice president of advertising and social media at AT&T, in an email. “We look for talent who has credibility with the public, whose story aligns with our core message and who is willing to do unexpected things that will capture attention and, ultimately, create memorability for the work.”

Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren declined to comment on the announcement.

For better or worse, “What a Pro Wants” isn’t going off the air anytime soon. But hit at your own risk. In March, the Milwaukee Bucks trolled SGA and Holmgren after a win over OKC: the team’s X account posted the final score – Bucks 118, Thunder 93 – along with the message “What a pro wants, what a pro needs. /Whatever makes us happy sets you free” and the hashtag “FearTheDeer”.

Milwaukee’s two future Hall of Famers, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, are sidelined with injuries. The team is one defeat away from elimination.

The duet guys keep playing.

Correction, May 2

The original version of this story misspelled the name of The Athletic’s national college football writer, David Ubben, in the second reference. It’s Ubben, not Udden.