Twitter jab at Mavericks costs Rockets' social media manager his job

As the Rockets were putting the finishing touches on a five-game series victory against the rival Mavericks, Houston's social media coordinator posted a controversial Twitter message featuring emojis of a pistol aimed at a horse's end with the caption, "Shhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon."

The Dallas logo features a horse, and the imagery was obvious — the 2014-15 Mavs had met their demise. Naturally, once the Mavericks' social media team responded, "Not very classy but we still wish you guys the best of luck in the next round," the Rockets deleted the original message and issued an apology.

A day later, it appears the man responsible for the original tweet, digital communications manager Chad Shanks, has been removed from his duties. Of course, Shanks addressed his firing on social media.

Shanks had helped build a following of more than 681,000 users for the Rockets' Twitter account, and considering the verbal barbs exchanged between the two organizations over the years, the tweet seemed more like a poor attempt at a joke than a fire-able offense, but alas Houston's social media chairperson has lasted only one day longer in the playoffs than the Mavericks team he put on proverbial blast.

(Insert sad face emoji here.)

- - - - - - -

Ben Rohrbach

is a contributor for Ball Don't Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach