If only we all could use social media and technology in such constructive ways.
After a firestorm followed a short Twitter response by PGA Tour pro Kevin Kisner on Saturday, it appears some mutual friends and a little FaceTime have connected Kisner and former NBA star and activist Rex Chapman.
On Saturday morning, Chapman mentioned that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on him, taking the lives of friends’ parents, putting his own parents in the hospital and infecting one of his children.
In the highly politicized world of social media, this drew, as you might expect, a multitude of responses.
My friends parents have died from Covid & Covid related issues. My parents are in & out of the hospital. One of my kids tested positive for Covid today.
Forgive me if I’m upset over 200,000 dead when the President told us 6-months ago we would be down to 0 cases “in a few days.”
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 12, 2020
Kisner, an affable University of Georgia alum, chimed in with a since-deleted comment that drew fire, saying:
Guess they can’t follow guidelines.
That opened the floodgates, with numerous responses from those insisting they like Kisner, but found his comment insensitive.
A few hours after pulling the original response down, Kisner responded with an explanation.
Earlier this morning, I made a reckless comment. I diminished the real experience of pain and loss suffered by many during the pandemic. I am not without empathy, but I certainly exercised poor judgement. I apologize to @RexChapman and anyone else that was hurt by my comment.
— Kevin Kisner (@K_Kisner) September 12, 2020
The good news is it appears the exchange facilitated a longer conversation on Saturday night, one that had the two meeting via FaceTime.
Chapman, who has a large social media following, had this to say after the interaction.
Kevin Kisner @K_Kisner & I spoke via FaceTime last night. He’s a great athlete & pro who has worked diligently to get where he is. Several common friends helped bridge the gap. These are weird times for all of us. Scary, stressful times.
Life’s a team game. Moving forward.🌎❤️
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 13, 2020
If there’s a light moment to come from this, it was from noted card Eddie Pepperell, who added the following:
Listen Kevin, if you need someone to handle your social media for you then I come at a good rate. Especially at the moment. Let’s chat at Dodgy Foot. 👍
— Eddie Pepperell (@PepperellEddie) September 12, 2020
