Last night, Chicago Bulls’ superstar guard Derrick Rose tore his ACL in Game One of the the Bulls’ playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. The injury will keep him out for the rest of the year, at the very least. An ACL injury is serious, the sort of serious that had ended promising careers. Now normally, you’d feel some sympathy for Rose, even if you rooted for another team or hated the Bulls. But you wouldn’t be Nike shoe designer Jason Petrie. See, Rose signed a deal with Nike rival Adidas, which gave Petrie (who designed LeBron James’ signature shoe) all the reason he needed to tweet this shortly after Rose’s injury.
http://twitter.com/sevenzro1/status/196363865188085760
As you might expect, this caused a the slightest kerfuffle, which sent Petrie back to Twitter. He was not exactly contrite.
http://twitter.com/sevenzro1/status/196366239646490624
http://twitter.com/sevenzro1/status/196441419949420544
That wasn’t quite the apology people wanted to see, though. Reaction was…strong. Petrie then issued a real apology this morning.
http://twitter.com/sevenzro1/status/196568345636642816
Twitter was not inclined to accept. In fact, people wanted more than a simply apology almost a day after the fact. Much more.
http://twitter.com/mws4ua/status/196615310823010305
@sevenzro1 Don't need to know you buddy. Ur just a disgusting human being – #plain&simple
— mickeyhawaii (@mickeyhawaii) April 29, 2012
@sevenzro1
honestly i dont know you and don't care too but if I were your boss you would be fired. You made Nike look bad.Have some class— David Gold (@yitters1) April 29, 2012
@sevenzro1 Looks like someone got a talking to from up above. I have a feeling "administrative leave" is somewhere in your future. Worth it?
— AV (@avardio) April 29, 2012
http://twitter.com/MKivland/status/196619638854008833
@sevenzro1 you cost your company a lot of money yesterday
— Trent Johnson (@t_Giancarlo) April 29, 2012
I sincerely hope @sevenzro1 loses his job for his comments about D-Rose. There are plenty around waiting to take his spot.
— Edward Nashton (@MrNashton) April 29, 2012
And those are the Tweets we can publish that are safe for work and children.
There is a lesson here. What you put on social media reaches the world, whether you want it to or not, so make sure your “joke” tweets really are jokes. Otherwise, you could spend an awful lot of time trying to save your job.
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