Toronto Raptors Getty Center Court Logo Floor
Getty Images

The Toronto Raptors organization issued an apology for a video they posted earlier this week celebrating Women's History Month. It was only a 16-second video, but the clip led to a ton of criticism for the franchise on social media.

"We're an organization that prides itself on doing the right thing when it comes to inclusion and representation, and we made a mistake (Tuesday)," reads a statement from the team published by the Toronto Sun. "Our sincerest apologies to our players, our staff and our fans – we'll work to do better today and every day after."

March is Women's History Month and March 8 is International Women's Day. It's not uncommon for teams and brands to post content celebrating women throughout the month.

"Happy Women's Empowerment Month! It's important that we not only celebrate but empower Women both on and off the court," read the tweet from the Raptors that has since been deleted, which featured the controversial video that went along with it.

The video featured Malachi Flynn, Precious Achiuwa and Scottie Barnes responding to the question: "Beyonce said girls run the world. Why do you think that's true?"

"They're the only ones who can procreate," Flynn said.

"They birth everybody," Achiuwa followed.

"All women are great because they are all queens," Barnes said at the end of the video.

The backlash mostly came from people saying women should be valued for more than just their ability to give birth, and therefore the video fell short in truly showing respect for women.

"Whew. It would be great to be respected as women for just existing, not for procreating," read one of the comments.

The Raptors have not posted a new video, but they are set to host Women's Empowerment Night on March 14 at Scotiabank Arena as part of their series of Culture Nights.