NBA social media is pretty fun. Way more so than other sports. The team accounts send barbs, gifs, memes and often emojii/emojis to one another during the game. It's a fun way to interact on social media, in which the NBA is one of the strongest sports leagues. Studies have shown the NBA to be more engaged with on social media than most of the other sports, outside the NFL.
Unfortunately, to some people, the Rockets' twitter account went a little far with what it tweeted on Tuesday night as the fourth quarter wound down in Houston's eventual Game 5 and series win over Dallas.
Here's what the account tweeted:
So you can read that a few ways.
1. The Rockets are going to shoot the "Mavericks," as in the actual players, and that would obviously not be OK.
2. The Rockets, like many Wild West farmers, are going to "put down" the Mavericks by taking them "behind the barn" and shooting them. Humane life-ending procedures were not always available.
3. The Rockets are "killing" the Mavericks' season by eliminating them.
4. If your device is incapable of rendering emojis, I was informed this morning on Twitter that the phrasing bears resemblance to what is called the "rape sloth" meme. That in turn led some people to believe it was in fact a rape joke, despite the presence of the horse and gun images, which would seem to indicate something different.
Critics understandably have concerns about a violent culture. The Rockets deleted the tweet, apologized to the Mavericks, which the Mavericks account grumpily acknowledged.
The Rockets also fired their social media manager Wednesday.
Sometimes you can go too far. I will no longer run @HoustonRockets but am grateful to the organization that let me develop an online voice.
— Chad Shanks (@chadjshanks) April 29, 2015
I did my best to make the account the best in the NBA by pushing the envelope, but pushed too far for some and for that I apologize.
— Chad Shanks (@chadjshanks) April 29, 2015
So, there's the story. You can now get fired for a horse emoji and a gun emoji, with cryptic dark text. The lesson is: never tweet.
