NBA Twitter is a space unlike any other, the Black Twitter-adjacent arena where basketball fans traffic in gossip and hope (however false) while expressing their passion for the game. It’s the internet EKG that relates consumer confidence in real time, revealing an attraction to chatter that would seem to outpace TV viewing interest in NBA games. And the readings are hardly restricted to the hardwood.
Like a judicious point guard who knows just when to pass or shoot, NBA Twitter was the organ that circulated the news last Thursday that San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama would miss the rest of the season over blood-clotting fears – and it was also the organ where many sports fans, myself included, first learned that Joe Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. There’s even speculation now about ESPN’s Stephen A Smith or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, NBA Twitter OGs, making a presidential run in 2028. “It’s probably the most vital and essential sports community on the planet,” says Josiah Johnson, undisputed king of NBA Twitter. “It’s a lot of immensely talented people who just carved out a lane.”
