Now that basketball is back, there is no happier base than #NBATwitter. Every pro sports league has a Twittersphere. Twitter offers a cool voice of “the people.” Anyone with internet access can create an account and throw their thoughts into the ethos in 280 characters, images, or short videos. #NFLTwitter, #UFCTwitter, and #MLBTwitter all offer insight into the sports fans, but #NBATwitter is just different.
#NBATwitter has a mind and a brain. It is dependent on the constituents, but it is also independent of them. Fans of all sports live-tweet games, but #NBATwitter live tweets free agency, the trade deadline, offseason pickup games, ESPN’s “The Jump” and “First Take,” NBATV at all hours of the day, and the social media accounts of anyone even tangentially associated with a round orange ball. #NBATwitter is all-encompassing.
Because it exists outside of actual games or content, it was a given that #NBATwitter was going to survive the quarantine. If anything, #NBATwitter only became more active in the absence of games. For what it’s worth, the lack of games made way for conversations about all of the aspects of #NBATwitter that have next to nothing to do with games.
Some of this, like the constant basketball talk, ought to stay. Some of this, however, needs to go. Here are some of the aspects of #NBATwitter than survived quarantine, but need to go now that basketball is back:
IMO #NBATwitter
“IMO,” “IMHO,” “IJMO,” and just writing out some version of “in my opinion,” on #NBATwitter has got to stop. Yes, in talking sports there are facts and there are opinions. In the facts circle of the Venn Diagram, there are statistics, dates, scores, and results. Those are non-debatable. The other circle of the Venn Diagram is about opinions. It includes “player rankings,” predictions, hopes, wants, anything about what’s “cooler.” But there’s a secret: the Venn Diagram looks like two basketballs, there’s no overlap. Anything in the former circle is not going to be in the latter circle, and vice versa.
When it comes to announcing your opinion, here’s the thing: it’s your tweet. It’s supposed to be your opinion. Frankly, it would be way more concerning if it was anything else. All adding it’s “IMO” does is weaken the point. It’s admitting that the following or preceding statement isn’t very strong, but it’s somehow ok because it’s an “O”.
As a teacher, I have to tell you that you should always cite your sources. Is it Jalen Rose’s opinion? Say it. Is it your mother’s cousin’s sister’s opinion? Name them. Is it an idea you heard in a podcast? Mention the name. But if it’s something thought up in your own head, stop wasting characters.
“TL Sleep?!” #NBATwitter
The big problem with this part of #NBATwitter is the inherent contradiction. If everyone’s really asleep, odds are the person tweeting this should also be asleep. And if it sparks responses? Then the person was wrong.
The bigger problem with these tweets isn’t the hypocrisy of them, however. It’s that they’re always followed by one of two things: 1) a completely garbage take for attention or 2) a completely obvious sentiment for attention. Either way, throwing out something like, “Luka Doncic is better than LeBron James”, into the atmosphere for clicks is done. We have games now… have garbage or obvious takes on the game that just happened!
I’m once again going to play my, I’m a teacher card and tell you that sleep is important. If the entire TL is “sleep,” then you should probably stop staring at a screen and also get some rest. Science indicates staring at a screen in the thirty-minutes to an hour before bed can ruin your entire night’s sleep.
And if the entire TL is not, then please stop. Maybe you’re just not interesting enough to have any interactions at that moment.
#NBATwitter has had some great trends happen during the COVID pause. We don’t need to throw the figurative 280 character baby out with the bathwater. What kinds of things did #NBATwitter utilize during the pause that need to stay?
Using GIFs and Memes of NBA Players Doing Not NBA Things
If there’s one thing the @NBABubbleLife twitter and Instagram handles have exacerbated, it’s just how much fun the NBA guys are off of the floor. The accounts follow the off floor time for NBA Players in the Orlando Bubble, and the content is really top-notch. The creators (Wells P, Nick DePaula, Drew Ruiz, and Travonne Edwards) have aggregated all bubble-related content into one social media handle, and through it have let the fans in on the fun.
The squad behind bubble life is really just putting all of the resources we wanted in one place, and in doing so one thing is obvious: as funny as the gifs and memes are from the in-game action, the gifs and memes of the off-the-court action are even funnier.
No league does a better job of conveying the personalities of its athletes than the NBA, and thus #NBATwitter is full of characters and faces the internet loves. And one thing from the COVID break in sports has become obvious: we don’t need the players to have their jerseys on for us to know who they are (even if Enes Kanter wears his in public while wearing no shirts on Zoom).
So yes, it is invasive of me to ask for gifs and memes of the off the floor moments of NBA players. But damn, it has provided some of the best content and the most fun of #NBATwitter between games. We absolutely need to keep engaging in the human, day-to-day life of this league. It’s the fun, it’s the reality, and it’s the thing we have to keep going as we finally get real NBA games.
