With Wednesday marking the twelfth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, many people in the United States used social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share their memories or offer their words of reflection on the anniversary of one of the worst days in the history of the U.S. Many sports teams and athletes also took to those platforms to remember a day that should be recognized, but one tweet send out by the Los Angeles Lakers was met with outrage.
The Lakers tweeted a picture of Kobe Bryant wearing the 9-11 memorial patch that every NBA team wore during the 2001-02 season following the attacks with the hashtag #neverforget. The message was meant to be a tribute to those who were lost that day, but the problem was that the picture wasn't a good choice because Bryant ended up being the main focus and the 9-11 patch was small in the photo, so the image of Bryant took center stage.
The tweet can be seen here.
The Lakers have since deleted the tweet and the team sent out a statement on Thursday apologizing, according to Yahoo Sports:
"We apologize to anyone who took this differently than we intended and were therefore offended by it. 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."
The Lakers seemingly good intentions at remembering those lost on 9-11 turned people against the tweet due to the unfortunate choice of imagery which confused and outraged people.
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