‘Ferocious Like the Bear’ – Naomi Osaka Issues Clarification After Huge Backlash Over Her New Media Firm With LeBron James

Last month, Naomi Osaka announced her new media company with American basketball legend, LeBron James. Osaka named the company Hana Kuma, meaning ‘flower bear’ in Japanese. However, the name of her company caused controversy as social media users pointed out a far more explicit meaning in Swahili, a local language in many African countries.

Off late, Osaka has been away from tennis owing to injuries. She had withdrawn from this year’s Wimbledon Championships after suffering an Achilles injury. Additionally, she has not been in top form this year, having an inconsistent run across the tournaments. Recently, she issued a clarification on the name of her new media company.

Naomi Osaka explains the name of her new media company with LeBron James

During an interview, the four-time Grand Slam champion talked about the actual meaning of her media company. She said, “We actually spent a ton of time working with an agency to come up with my own personal logo, which we now call the flower bear.”

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Further, she added, “We did several creative workshops where I shared a lot about my style and personality, which led to several iterations of the flower bear concept. The logo is super-special to me now since it’s a true reflection of who I am—ferocious like the bear when I’m on the court, but soft and gentle like the flower when I’m off.”

Fans mock Osaka’s media company name

Twitter users slammed Osaka for naming her company Hana Kuma. One of the Twitter users wrote, “Did they do a global search on what the name means? She should have been well advised it has a very vulgar meaning in Swahili which is spoken by many people.”

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Further, other users mentioned it to be ‘unethical’ and ‘explicit’. Meanwhile, on the tennis front, Osaka will participate in the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Toronto alongside the likes of Serena Williams and Iga Swiatek.