Lakers Issue An Apology After Deleting 9/11 Tweet

The Los Angeles Lakers sent out a tweet earlier today in an attempt to commemorate the lives lost 12 years ago. Some people took offense because the tweet appeared to be only showing Kobe Bryant with long hair, which was misconstrued as a poor attempt at levity on a tough day for many Americans. Now the Lakers have officially apologized after quickly deleting the tweet many considered disrespectful.

The Lakers Twitter account was hoping fans would see the 9/11 commemorative patch Kobe was wearing on his uniform, but many missed the patch after a cursory glance at the picture featuring the popular hashtag today #NeverForget.

The Lakers apologized, via USA Today:

“We apologize to anyone who took this differently than we intended and were therefore offended by it,” Lakers spokesman John Black said in an e-mail. “We used a photo of how we commemorated 9/11 in the 2001-02 season, shortly after the tragedy occurred, because we wanted to show our support of what we felt at that time and continue to feel now. Out of respect for the intensely personal nature of how people remember this day, and that we recognize that not everyone understood the intent of our message, we pulled down our tweet and photo. Ultimately, our intent was to honor the spirit of remembering a day that we should all never forget.”

Our initial reaction matched most of Twitter and the Internet as a whole and it being the Lakers, the schadenfreude was overt. But after reading the Lakers apology and realizing that many failed to spot the commemorative patch â€” even though it wasn’t conspicuous enough to withstand the quick glance of the Internet, we’re feeling rather bad about the whole thing. Some don’t care that Kobe was wearing a commemorative patch.

The Lakers were smart to delete the tweet and apologize, but on such an emotional day for many Americans, some were actively looking for something to find offensive. The Lakers gave them that.