The robust online community that fuels the NBA’s popularity can be its greatest asset and a dangerous liability. For the past seven days, the full spectrum has been on display
The NBA, as a league, fandom and general cultural phenomenon, is what could be fairly described as “painfully online”. From stars like Kevin Durant gleefully and regularly dunking on detractors from their own Twitter accounts, to media personalities like Josiah Johnson who have made entire careers out of memeing the league in real time, to the average fan constantly refreshing their feeds during playoff games: it seems, in many ways, that the crux of the NBA exists in the internet ether as much as it does on the hardwood.
The community that has formed around the NBA online has become maybe its greatest present-day asset, keeping fans engaged and keeping the league in the news even in the doldrums of the offseason. In 2021, “NBA” was the No 1 trending search on Google in the US, and its official Instagram account has more followers than all the other major professional sports leagues in the nation combined. Of course, there’s strength in numbers. But as the uncle of a famous spider-human mutant once astutely observed, with great power comes great responsibility. And, as evidenced over the last week, the power of the ever-churning internet hivemind can be a force for good, and a force for quite the opposite.
