A Picture of Kobe Bryant Posted on the Lakers' Twitter Account to Commemorate 9/11 Caused Plenty of Controversy

Wha...why?

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Throughout the day, people have been adding to the #neverforget hashtag on Twitter, as a way of remembering the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The Los Angeles Lakers were no different. Earlier today, the Lakers posted a tweet with an accompanying picture of Kobe Bryant during the 2001-02 season with a commemorative patch, acknowledging all the lives lost on that fateful morning. It didn't seem like anything controversial or offensive, but eventually, the tweet was deleted after people thought the organization was trying to find humor in the fact that Kobe was rocking a 'fro at the time. Hit the thumbs to check out the tweet and pic. 

In an attempt to smooth things over, Lakers spokesman John Black replied to all the heat received from the tweet in an email.

“We apologize to anyone who took this differently than we intended and were therefore offended by it,” Black said. “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.”

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[via For The Win]

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