The company behind an Oklahoma City Thunder T-shirt that made reference to Seattle and the Sonics said it received death threats Monday, and briefly pulled the shirt from its online shop.
The shirt, made by Warpaint Clothing Co. in Oklahoma, apparently first received notoriety over the weekend, when Howard Beck, The New York Times' NBA writer, tweeted about it after he saw Thunder fans wearing it overheard Thunder fans talking about it on a plane.
"OKC residents sitting in front of me talking about t-shirts that say 'Thunder' on front and 'Thanks, Seattle' on back. That's cold, OKC," Beck tweeted.
The Thunder are currently playing the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.
You can see a picture of the shirt here.
Things got ugly sometime Monday, as evidenced on Warpaint’s own Twitter feed.
"Got hate mail from Sonics nation . Hahahahahaha," the company tweeted early Monday morning.
A few hours later, the company seemed to take a more conciliatory tone: "So much hate in the world. No disrespect meant. We appreciate where our team came from actually. Put your energy into something positive."
And later: "We r (sic) saying thank you for such a great organization. We truly appreciate and respect the city of sea (sic)."
The company said it was dropping the shirt from its website: "After receiving death threats we have decided to take the shirt down offline. Sorry if we offended you Seattle."
By Tuesday, though, the shirt, and a tank-top version, was available online once again.
KIRO
