Derrick Rose Injury: Nike Must Punish Outspoken Employee After Insensitive Tweet
Nike designer Jason Petrie crossed the line when he went after Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose on Twitter. He needs to feel the repercussions of his insensitive and, quite frankly, arrogant tweets.
This isn't the cashier from Big Bill's Shoe Express taking to Twitter, mind you. Petrie is a prolific designer for Nike—oh, you know, just the biggest brand name in sports, if not the world—and he went out and essentially mocked a star player who had just torn his ACL and lost his playoff hopes.
Did I mention that Rose is signed with Adidas?
You stay classy, Nike...
Here's what transpired over Twitter:
"You got one guy only getting stronger, and one guy breaking down before our very eyes. You chose poorly Pooh…#shouldasignedwithNIKE#GWS
"
Petrie is obviously referencing his client, LeBron James, at the beginning of his tweet, and Pooh is a family nickname for D-Rose.
He crossed the line when he brought in Rose signing with Adidas over Nike. Twitter is many things, but I highly doubt that it's an appropriate place to air out work grievances and grudges, especially when a guy just got injured.
Like I said earlier, if this was Joe Schmo from the local hardware store taking to Twitter and mocking Rose for his personal decision on sports branding, I highly doubt anyone would care. But when you're a hotshot designer at Nike and you're going after the competition's guy after an injury, that's just bad form and people are going to notice.
It is worth noting that if you look on Petrie's Twitter today, there is somewhat of an apology:
It may be too little to late, though, as the court of public opinion is already out on this guy, and it's not that positive.
With great power comes great responsibility. He has to realize that him working at Nike comes with a ton of responsibility—even on social media.
Nike needs to punish their outspoken employee. He represented them with bad form and bad taste, and this story paints their brand in a negative light, true or not.
He may be allowed to say whatever he wants, but he's not above the repercussions of his actions.
