When Kobe Bryant joined Twitter earlier this year, one of the more intriguing subplots about his time on the social media site was the way he would approach his interactions with fans, critics, or anyone that just bothered to put “@kobebryant” in a 140-character missive. Would he reply at all? Would Kobe reply endlessly to dozens of followers, only to delete the replies to clear his feed? Would he send dismissive direct messages back to the followers, knowing that they couldn’t DM back? Or would he pick and choose, smartly.
So far, it appears as if Bryant is picking and choosing, smartly. The Lakers All-Star, who heads into Monday afternoon with nearly 1.3 million followers on the service, used the hours following his team’s hard-fought yet mistake-prone loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday to chide one fan.
After one follower shared the sentiments of many female (and male) Bryant followers by offering the suggestion that he and the Laker star “make out in bed,” another follower offered this lovely take:
At least he spelled “you’re” correctly.
Swiftly, Kobe came back with this:
Immediately everyone’s thoughts went to an ugly April of 2011 incident that saw Bryant referring to referee Bennie Adams as a derogatory term for homosexuals, preceded by that most unprintable of curse words. We rightfully teed off on Bryant following the incident, and the NBA hit Kobe with a massive $100k fine.
Was Bryant right to go after that follower (that, in the hours since, completely unrepentant and unreadable follower) for working up a less profane version of what he used to toss out?
Well, yeah.
Let’s let Bryant, in a Twitter response later that night to someone who didn’t like the perceived hypocrisy, take over.
Anyone else got a problem with that?
Anyone else still cool with betraying their own intelligence and blithely hurting others by continuing to use the word “gay” as an insult?
It’s 2013. Find another word, schmendricks.
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