Following the Los Angeles Clippers’ 108-112 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, the team’s official Twitter account posted the score in interesting fashion. It’s since been deleted, but not only did they tweet the score, they also added a hashtag to take an easy shot at the Memphis Grizzlies after they got crushed by the Warriors in a 50 point loss (119-69) on Monday night. As a result, it inspired whoever runs the Clippers’ Twitter account to use #didntloseby50.
They have paid for their social network actions, though, as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times has now confirmed that the employee has been “disciplined”.
Clippers employee who tweeted out #didntloseby50 after loss to Warriors on Wednesday has been disciplined, per team spokesman.
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) November 6, 2015
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What “disciplined” involves isn’t exactly clear, although it at least sounds like it isn’t as serious as the Houston Rockets’ social media situation from earlier this year in the playoffs, as they were closing out a series against the Dallas Mavericks. Their Digital Communications Manager Chad Shanks was fired after tweeting a couple of emojis that people somehow found offensive.
Well, offensive enough to think someone should be fired for them.
They posted an emoji of a horse’s head next to a gun, with the text “Shhhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon”. Supposedly that insinuated too many violent and negative connotations to be taken as a joke, and the Rockets employee was promptly fired.
Some may find the Clippers’ hashtag funny, others may find it childish. Yet, none of these matters should be taken too seriously as they are often purely meant as a joke. Not everything has a deeper intent.
However, there’s a different problem with what the Clippers did. If they actually defeated the Warriors, it would have been fine. But they lost, and still felt the need to almost brag about not losing by 50. Whether you lose by 4 or 50 is besides the point. A loss is a loss, and you should never take any kind of comfort in a narrow defeat or feel like that’s ‘good enough’ so you can take shots at another team who lost against the exact same opponent just two days earlier.
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Of course, it also needs to be stressed that it’s ultimately just one tweet. It really isn’t significant and it’s nothing worth discussing in any great length. Plus, if the Clippers won, it would have been totally fair and expected to add a little trash talking on social media.
Now, the person responsible has been “disciplined” for their actions and we probably won’t see any more cocky tweets after losses from the Clippers Twitter team. And that’s for the best. The Clippers already lack respect around the league, and while it isn’t necessary that other teams like them, they still never want to take even the slightest amount of pride after a defeat. A loss is a loss, and it’s never good enough whether it’s the second week of the season or the last.
For a team who need to prove themselves like the Clippers, they just need to move on from losses while they improve around their new bench and focus on defeating the Warriors next time.