Elena Della Donne thought she was being cute and funny with her recent tweets regarding Lakers’ Rookie Lonzo’s Ball’s Big Baller Brand sneakers he wore in his NBA Summer League debut. For those who may not be aware here is what she tweeted:
How great would it be if @ZO2_ blew out his shoe in his first summer league game? should have gone with @Nike
— Elena Delle Donne (@De11eDonne) July 8, 2017
She then chased that with:
Did I just see a shoe malfunction?! I think sooooo!
— Elena Delle Donne (@De11eDonne) July 8, 2017
To be objective, she did not wish for Ball to get hurt as some outlets had “reported”. To attribute things to her or anyone else that they did not say in order to prop up a narrative that attempted to be spun is dishonest and irresponsible.
This can be added to the shameful and inappropriate list of things Nike-affiliated personages have said about competing companies’ athletes or their products. Let us remember Nike designer Jason Petrie’s deplorable comments on twitter when Derrick Rose tore his ACL. Petrie said:
“You got only one guy getting stronger, and one guy breaking down before our very eyes.” Rose “chose poorly” and “#shouldasignedwithNIKE #GWS (Get well soon)
After getting lambasted by users of the social media site, Petrie came back and issued an apology, tweeting:
Wow! Twitterverse I do apologize. It was really just tongue n cheek! Never meant any harm or disrespect!
Della Donne’s comments, to say the least, were classless. Prior to Saturday, she has never wished for a blowout of a shoe from an Adidas, or any other company’s signature shoe. As some of these larger brands are currently more direct competition for the company she is currently signed with, Nike, it is curious that she has never sough$t to publicly root for the failure of any of their products. To ensinuate that Ball would be better off merely being a cog in a large machine, as she chose to do, rather than forge his own path.
Some have wondered is there a racial element to her criticism. There is no record of her cheering of Milwaukee Bucks’ point guard Matthew Dellavedova’s Peak shoes to fail or that he should have signed with Nike. She was silent when former NBA-er Steve Nash left Nike to sign with Chinese brand Luyou. Della Donne had no words for Kevin Love when he signed with 361 Degrees in 2011. However, out of nowhere,she felt the need to talk about Lonzo Ball’s footwear and who he should have signed with.
Naturally, she caught some backlash for her comments and she then went into victim mode( with the help of some publications who are caping for her) to deflect from her getting called out and lambasted because she could not actually give a salient response that would not make her sound like a racist or a petulant child.
