The Los Angeles Lakers scored a new Wyoming draftee—and he brought some extra baggage. Larry Nance Jr., who just wrapped his college ball career and landed a spot with the Lake Show, owed his new NBA home an apology after a 2012 tweet where he labeled star Kobe Bryant a “rapist.
Seems the Lakers’ new draft pick just deleted this old tweet from 2012. Probably a good idea. pic.twitter.com/kC33QuIvPL
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) June 26, 2015
The tweet, RT’d by ESPN’s NBA reporter Baxter Holmes, referred to Kobe’s 2003 sexual assault case, where he was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee. USA Today reports the tweet went viral less than an hour after Nance’s draft pickup and garnered some critical reactions from Lakers’ fans.
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Nance then tweeted his apology to Kobe, who took it surprisingly well quite well. The Black Mamba released a positive statement in light of Nance’s misstep, saying that Nance reached out to him and that it wasn’t in his nature to hold a grudge against the “kid.”
“I said, ‘Dude listen. We’ve all said things and done things that we regret and wish we could take back,” he. “‘It’s water under the bridge, man. Welcome to the team.'”
Captioned “Laker Fans,” the 22-year-old then redeemed himself with a sincere apology on Twitter:
Laker Fans… pic.twitter.com/0Gz6NkNy5z
— Larry Nance Jr (@Larrydn22) June 30, 2015