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Witness the Greatest Moment In Kiss Cam History

The Kiss Cam is a nice idea, and adds some lighthearted fun to NBA games. But are humans actually responsible enough to use this innovation effectively?

At every NBA arena, there is a gargantuan four-sided screen hanging above center court. This does not seem safe, for one thing, but mostly it is not necessary. Simply having those gigantic screens there means that teams feel compelled to put things on them, which is how we wind up with Pepsi logos measuring 50 feet across, and videos of Lou Williams drowsily telling fans that his favorite TV show is "Martin." No one really needs this, but as the saying goes, when all you have is a screen, everything looks like a Thing That Should Be On A Screen.

As this sort of stuff goes, the Kiss Cam is not necessarily the worst. Yes, it is some doof with a camera coercing people into kissing each other simply by putting a camera on them, regardless of whether one of them has been eating garbage nachos since tipoff, or whether one of them thought that date night would mean something other than watching Kendrick Perkins commit an intentional foul and then fall down with a confused look on his face. But also kissing is good, and people are good, and it is at least not a gigantic Pepsi logo. In the abstract, a Kiss Cam is as good an idea as any.

But, as the video above from Wednesday night's Hawks/Wizards game demonstrates, we are perhaps not yet responsible enough, as fans and as humans, for the in-stadium Kiss Cam. We mean well, certainly: we love playoff basketball and we love beer and we love each other, and all of those are awesome things to love. But also we are maybe not ready to love all of them at the same time. Ask the woman who got five ounces of beer on her hair. Ask the (justifiably terrified) dude whose mucho gusto kiss helped put them there. Ask any of them and they will tell you: we are, as humans, perhaps not ready to use Kiss Cam technology responsibly. Maybe someday. Definitely not yet.