--- title: Dad Trolls Son's Bad Grades With Basketball Game Sign PHOTO description: A dad used his sense of humor while admonishing his son's bad grades. His solution? Trolling his son at an NBA game with a silly sign. canonical: https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T20:30:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:18.015Z og:title: This Dad Had a Hilarious Punishment for His Son's Bad Grades og:description: Trolling at its best og:url: https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Dad Had a Hilarious Punishment for His Son's Bad Grades twitter:description: Trolling at its best twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Dad's Punishment for His Son's Bad Grades Was Very Public and Hilarious > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 27, 2017 8:30 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 27, 2017 8:30 PM UTC While [getting bad grades](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1871528,00.html) usually mean consequences of some kind, one resourceful father knew what would really drive home the lesson that school matters. An NBA fan showed up to the [Cleveland Cavaliers](http://time.com/4709449/cleveland-cavaliers-sandwiches/) vs. Charlotte Hornets game on Friday night with a sign that hilariously called out his son Thomas’ less than stellar academics and suggesting that if he gets his “grades up, next time you’ll be here.” The trolling approach to parenting didn’t stop there, however — this NBA dad also showed up to the Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Game on Sunday night, with another sign captured by ESPN that emphasized that his son should be a “student, then athlete.” This dad is [the real MVP](http://time.com/4325964/riley-curry-stephen-curry-nba-mvp/). > [](https://twitter.com/danieliskoo/status/845526210302132226) > [](https://twitter.com/royceyoung/status/846101445313253376) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/"},"headline":"Dad's Punishment for His Son's Bad Grades Was Very Public and Hilarious","datePublished":"2017-03-27T20:30:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:18.015Z","description":"Trolling at its best","url":"https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Cleveland Cavaliers","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4714371/basketball-dad-bad-grades-trolls-son/","name":"Dad's Punishment for His Son's Bad Grades Was Very Public and Hilarious"}}]}] ```