There were plenty of reasonable reactions to have to Derrick Rose's ACL injury that will keep him out of the playoffs. Disbelief, outrage and sadness are all good ones. Joking about how Rose's injury problems are the result of his decision not to wear and endorse your line of footwear would probably be a bad reaction.
Was Derrick Rose Injury A Result Of His Shoes? Nike Designer Thinks So
You know where this is going: Jason Petrie, a Nike shoe designer did just that, and it was, well, a little #toosoon.
Here’s the tweet:
You got one guy only getting stronger, and one guy breaking down before our very eyes. You chose poorly Pooh...#shouldasignedwithNIKE #GWS
— Jason Petrie (@sevenzro1) April 28, 2012
Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Devine walks us through what this means and why it wasn’t such a chill thing to say:
"Pooh," of course, is the nickname Rose was given by his grandmother when he was a kid. Rose, of course, wears and endorses adidas shoes; the Bulls point guard recently signed a 13-year endorsement deal with the shoemaker that, with incentives, could pay him more than $200 million. The intimation, of course, is that Rose wouldn't have torn a ligament in his left knee if the shoes on his feet when he landed that jump stop were emblazoned with a swoosh. Of course.
Was this tweet in poor taste? Probably. Was it meant as a joke? I think so. But this is the Internet and so once the tweet got out, there was predictable OUTRAGE and fans demanding an apology.
When the Internet gets mad, there’s only one thing to do: apologize and go into hiding. So on Sunday morning, 13 hours later, Jason Petrie did just that:
Wow!Twitterverse I do apologize.It was really just tongue n cheek! Never meant any harm or disrespect!
— Jason Petrie (@sevenzro1) April 29, 2012
What do you think? Is Petrie a jerk for making these comments or is the Internet (and angry Bulls fans) taking this a little too seriously?
Keep up with the latest updates on our Derrick Rose Injury StoryStream and get more fan perspective on the Bulls by visiting Blog-a-Bull and SB Nation Chicago.
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