Social Media Basketball Discourse is Tanking

The conversations about basketball are at an all-time low.

It’s rare to open up social media and see a productive conversation on basketball.

Here’s a theory to consider:

With a majority of mainstream sports media pivoting to a “hot takes” era, it led to an impact on social-media tweets and comments becoming full of hot takes as well.

Here’s some of the many discourse conversations taking place on social media:

Many agendas are being pushed to make a point. It begs the question: Who actually enjoys basketball and the sport itself?

When the awards are announced, such as selections for All-NBA Teams, the comments are full of whiners and complaining a player got snubbed or robbed.

What about congratulating the actual All-NBA selections? Check out the comments under this tweet from Shams Charania and the lack of fans congratulating a player for this achievement.

The storylines, particularly the “legacy on the line” is just quite odd. If the player does not perform up to expectations, so what?

Check this for instance:

The conversation should be around a hypothetical Anthony Edwards ring and celebrating the young star, not pulling down Devin Booker and Ja Morant.

At the end of the day, they go home with a paycheck of millions.

Which goes into the next point.

Someone will recklessly say “this player choked in the playoffs.”

Well, did the player “choke” or did the opposing team simply had a better defensive gameplan to contain him?

Then, there’s the overreactions.

Take the Denver Nuggets for instance. After losing in seven games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the discourse on the Nuggets made it sound like the Nuggets were swept.

The truth is: the Nuggets lost in seven games to a team that was built to beat them.

There was discourse that Michael Porter Jr. or even Jamal Murray needed to be traded after this series.

Sometimes, the better team wins. It happens. Someone has to lose.

Discourse would be refreshing if fans were more like New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green by giving the opposing team credit.

Instead, fans are constantly complaining that their team didn’t do this or that to win the game.

If there’s anything that fans have in common, it’s these things:

• Every fanbase hates their head coach and wants them fired when things go south.
• Every fanbase thinks the referees are against them after a loss.
• Every fanbase thinks the national commentators and announcers are bias against them.

Kevin Durant was right: Basketball fans hate everything about basketball.

Discourse would be significantly improve if it was more like “Hey, I think because they run drop coverage against this matchup, they will succeed.” Or “I noticed that the star player is hunting mismatches on switches and forcing double teams.”

Instead, it’s who can farm engagement and come up with the hottest take.

“Bag” Twitter users that fall in love with aesthetics totally forget there’s a whole other side to the game of basketball and that there’s more prototypes of players than just “hesi tween splash.”

Some of the terms to talk basketball is just flat out odd.

Take “Stephen Curry‘s gravity” for instance.

Is this astronomy class?

Gravity usually means a player drawing attention from multiple defenders, but why is a common thing to say?

There is potential to reverting back to basketball talk and away from terrible hot takes.

Because anyone can say a hot take.

The question becomes if social media users are willing to invest into good takes and discussions.