Caught with their skirts down. Off the job and out of uniform. Make the jokes -- bloggers are -- but the Sacramento Kings aren't laughing and are mostly mum on a public relations flap over some salacious photos posted online of its Royal Court dancers.
In one photo, four women are seen bending over -- their backsides showing and leaving little to the imagination. Another shows two women posing suggestively as if about to kiss.
At the least, the incident poses the question: What were they thinking?
The photos appear to be old -- perhaps dating back at least two years -- but the perils of digital footprints provide a cautionary tale that what happens in Las Vegas -- or in this case, the locker room or private quarters -- doesn't always stay there.
"With the advent of the Internet, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, these things take on a life of their own," said Douglas Elmets, president of Elmets Communications, a public relations firm in Sacramento.
The story could have legs, he said, if not dealt with head-on and immediately. "They have to come clean," Elmets said. "Young girls look up to (the dancers) and I presume old men lust after them."
The photos are the latest in a string of embarrassments for the Kings. Last year, guard Ron Artest had a run-in with the law because of domestic violence, and shortly after being hired, former coach Eric Musselman was arrested for drunken driving.
"The photos of Sacramento Kings Dance Team members circulating on the Internet were published without the knowledge or permission of the Dance Team members or the Sacramento Kings, and they do not adhere to the principles and values of the Sacramento Kings organization," the Kings said in a statement.
The photos show the Kings dancers partying. Some of the women pictured are no longer on the dance team.
The photos found their way onto the Internet when they were uploaded to a picture-sharing Web site - and posted for all the World Wide Web to see.
Access was soon restricted, however, after a blogger downloaded the images and began circulating the photos online to sites such as www.withleather.com.
Soon, other bloggers joined in, and online gawking ensued.
There was talk of shame and disciplinary action. Others offered racy commentary.
"As far as the dancers go, why is anyone surprised?" said one post on the Sactown Royalty blog. "Did people think they wore floor length dresses and went to the 6:00 AM mass on Sunday?"
In an e-mail to Sacramento Bee sports writer Sam Amick, Mitch Germann, the Kings' vice president of business communications, declined to say if disciplinary measures would be taken: "We handle all Team Member personnel issues internally."
Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof also had little to say. "We obviously don't condone that type of behavior," he told Amick. "We'll deal with it internally."
Athletes have learned the perils of posting compromising pictures on their MySpace and Facebook accounts, with some high school and college coaches checking those sites to monitor their behavior.
Many of those who post risqui images do so on password-protected sites.
At least seven of the team's dancers have accounts on MySpace -- all but one inaccessible to the public.
It's unclear when the collection of 14 photos -- most of them tame and featuring group shots -- was posted online. It's also unclear how it was discovered by bloggers.
"You should always be ready for your close-up," said Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project and co-author of a report on digital footprints on the Internet.
The spread of digital cameras makes it easy for anyone - including strangers - to post images online, Fox said.
That could mean added pressure to be on your best behavior, she and others say.
"When someone has a digital camera, you should ask that person what they're going to do with it," suggested Mary Madden, a co-author of the Pew report.
"There's a difference in what your friends might want to see," she said, "and what your parents or grandparents might want to see."
(Sacramento Bee reporter Sam Amick and researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to this story.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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