Clippers employee disciplined over snarky tweet about West rival

It’s not entirely clear who started the trend of trash talk between professional sports moving from the field of play to the Internet. But it’s clearly keeping rivalries heated—and heads are rolling as a result.

Such is the case for the Los Angeles Clippers employee who reportedly was disciplined after targeting the Memphis Grizzlies in a tweet this week. And the discipline doesn't appear to be cooling any bad feelings.

The tweet in question followed a rough-and-tumble 112-108 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena on Wednesday. The Clippers reportedly posted a tweet that displayed the final score, and also threw shade at the Grizzlies by creating the hashtag #didntloseby50, referencing Memphis’ 50-point loss to the defending champion Dubs earlier that week.

It’s not the Houston Rockets’ horse-and-gun emoji mess from last year’s NBA Finals, but it wasn’t the most professional or unbiased tweet either.

The tweet was eventually deleted, but not before it was widely seen after a screenshot was captured by NBCSports.com and got plenty of coverage, Ben Bolch of the LA Times reported on Thursday.

Not surprisingly, the Grizzlies were not impressed with the cheap shot. While a couple members of the Memphis club have voiced their disdain, Tony Allen's comments to the media have caught the most headlines, Helene Elliott of the LA Times reported:

“Teammate Tony Allen also took offense at the tweet by the Clippers, who continue to provoke a remarkable amount of hatred for a team that has never gotten past the second round of the playoffs and can't claim to be a victim of title envy. A club spokesman said the employee responsible for the tweet had been disciplined but wasn't dismissed. 

"You ever seen the movie 'White Men Can't Jump'? It's like those brothers would rather look good in a loss than look bad in a win," Allen said. "Whoever is in charge of their Twitter should be fired. I've never seen anybody broadcast losing. Who's proud of losing — whether it's by one, two, three or 50? Enough said."”

This could potentially make things a bit more heated when the Grizzlies visit Staples Center next Monday.