Who, When, Why? The Unwritten Rules of Butt-Slaps in the NBA

NEW YORK — Few players can electrify onlookers as prolifically as Brandon Jennings. His wicked crossover routinely leaves opponents falling back on their heels. He relishes the spotlight too and has no qualms turning down the mundane to seek it out.

Jennings is someone who can bring both the crowd and teammates to their feet. Watch the New York Knicks on any given night, and chances are you'll see their bench leap out of their leather folding chairs during a timeout to commend Jennings for a highlight play.

He loves those moments. Like all players, he enjoys the praise. He does, however, have one rule when it comes to the physical embrace that often accompanies the celebration:

"Everything up high," a smiling Jennings told Bleacher Report. He then raised both arms above his head.

"I'll say, 'Up here, up here,'" he added, indicating how he requests his slaps, "and make sure everything's up top and nothing below the waist."

But Jennings, it turns out, might actually be an outlier among his peers—even in the uber-masculine world of the NBA.

Games today seem to include as many butt-slaps as high-fives. Players enthusiastically greet teammates with them. Coaches use them with referees to sarcastically communicate disapproval.

Even opponents exchange butt-slaps, usually as a way to express respect—or at least that seemed to be the case Monday night when Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins and Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid swapped multiple pats on the rear. 

"I like that kid a lot," Cousins told CSN Bay Area following Sacramento's 102-100 win. "I don't give a lot of people props, but I like that kid a lot. I think he's got a great chance at being the best big in this league…after I retire."

The butt-slap may have evolved into the league's go-to congratulatory gesture, but players still expect it to be deployed with reservation. After all, there are rules to smacking teammates and fellow men on the posterior.

"After somebody makes a good defensive play, that's a perfect time," Knicks guard Courtney Lee told Bleacher Report. He then demonstrated how to do so on the air in front of him. "A good offensive play, something when you're like, 'Good job, boy, keep it going,' that's the perfect time."

Butt-slaps, according to Lee, are part of the NBA's everyday life. He said he has no issues with that but does believe they should be regulated. His rules: Save them for your teammates, not opponents. Keep them on the court and out of the locker room. Also, they should be limited to one spank per laud. 

"I'm not sure what DeMarcus is doing there," Lee said after being shown a clip of Cousins and Embiid. "You can't be running around playing grab-ass in the middle of the game and saying, 'My turn, your turn.'

"I'm going to have to text him about that."

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Lee was then asked whether he ever had an issue with a teammate crossing the line or any examples of a particular butt-slap that resonated with him.

"This interview is going south right now; I don't know what's going on," he said. "No, I don't have any favorite ass-slapping stories." Lee then sauntered away with his left hand tucked behind him as a shield.

Two players who likely do have a favorite tale are Grant Hill and Reggie Evans. Back in 2010, the two opponents exchanged butt-slaps in a game not once but twice in back-to-back fashion, not unlike what we saw this week from Cousins and Embiid. 

The difference? The embrace came in a heated exchange and didn't initially give off the same complimentary vibes we saw from Boogie and The Process.

Both Hill and Evans seemed to use the butt-slap as a way of one-upping the other, leading to their eventual ejections. That said, they also left the court together, smiling, exchanging more traditional daps in what can only be called a bizarre moment of solidarity.

It's easy to see why with ejections and tempers flaring as potential outcomes. But could Lee's embracing of the butt-slap actually help him and his teammates? It might not be as wild as it sounds.

Nine years ago, Michael Kraus, who holds a doctorate in psychology and is a professor in Yale's School of Management, looked into the role that touch between teammates plays on the court.

"Tactile communication, or physical touch, promotes cooperation between people, communicates distinct emotions, soothes in times of stress and is used to make inferences of warmth and trust," he wrote in his introduction to his research. "Based on this conceptual analysis, we predicted that in group competition, physical touch would predict increases in both individual and group performance."

To see if he was right, Kraus and colleagues logged every example of friendly touch that occurred during the 2008-09 season. They then broke the data down into categories: fist-bumps, high-fives, chest-bumps. And butt-slaps, of course.

The results? The more affectionate teams were usually the most efficient ones.  

"We saw that touch was predictive of performance over the course of the season, both for players and teams," Kraus told Bleacher Report in a phone interview.

The reasons, according to Kraus, are simple.

"Touch is one of the earliest senses we develop; it teaches you how to know who to be close to," he said. "It becomes a signal of trust and warmth. It has the capacity to soothe us and make us feel safe and comfortable."

Kraus could only prove that better teams tended to be touchier and not that touch actually boosted performance. Still, there are reasons to think it might. Take oxytocin, for example, the hormone that facilitates feelings of trust between individuals that the body produces after being touched.

Would that include a nice, firm slap to the derriere?

"Butt slaps are just as good as any other type of touch," Kraus said. "How much you do it matters more than the type."

Perhaps it's time for Lee and Jennings to overhaul some of their rules. The Knicks' season could depend on it. 

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. 

Yaron Weitzman covers the Knicks, and other things, for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman, and listen to his Knicks-themed podcast here.