Social media is a powerful force. It can be utilized as a deadly weapon, mighty enough to take the world’s most famous athletes from eminence and adulation and banish them to a life of scorn and irrelevance with just the click of a button. All it took was one photo of Olympic hero, Michael Phelps, out on the town to transform him from the United States’ national treasure to the country’s redheaded stepchild. The people of the Internet exiled him from Mount Olympus to the closet beneath the stairwell in cold blood. Leave the hashtag take the cannolis.
However, like any great source of power, the tool can be used for good as well as evil. Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, is certainly aware of the good that can come from a positive social media presence. With the emergence of sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Vine, the four major sports leagues have been faced with a conundrum on how to manage the posting of unauthorized game footage on social media. While some leagues have taken steps to eliminate this sort of content highjacking, Silver has decided to take his in the opposite direction, embracing the almost constant flood of NBA-themed memes and GIFs to Twitter and Instagram.
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Whether it’s due to the fluidity of the game or the endless potential for big plays and high-energy moments, basketball seems to be the sport most conducive to social media popularity. At any moment, Russell Westbrook can break towards the rim and throw down a dunk with glass-shattering force. Just as likely, Steph Curry could effortlessly glide up the floor at top speed, stop on a dime, send his defender ten rows into the stands, and bang home a moonshot three at the buzzer. Every moment on the basketball court has potential to make history. This is exactly why it translates so seamlessly to social media. Each one of these moments can be captured in a ten second clip and posted to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram for the world to see. That just isn’t the same for every sport, and the NBA is taking advantage of it.
Fast break #SPLASH via @KlayThompson, @andre and @StephenCurry30 on @csnauthentic https://t.co/4AHRiOAu4p
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) November 23, 2015
Initially, the game’s social media popularity came from fuzzy clips of TV screens uploaded by fans. But as the league began to recognize the growing numbers of fan-posted clips making an impact online, they started posting some of their own; however, instead of grainy recordings of televisions, the NBA posted legitimate network-quality game footage to their accounts.
While they started with posting to their own accounts, they quickly looked into how to control the posting of fans. This fall, the league partnered with Verizon and developed go90, a mobile app that allows fans to stream games on the go as well as cut and paste high quality footage to post to their personal accounts. They recognized the positive impact of fans posting copyrighted game footage, and—instead of condemning their loyal followers—they adapted to the change and revolutionized the way we consume sports.
Rather than rejecting the social media movement, Silver and the NBA have welcomed it with open arms, and –in doing so—have managed to transform the landscape of the league entirely. Cities that were once considered small markets with less exposure and more local fan bases are now regarded with equal clout as teams from New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Basketball fans of yore— accustomed to championships trading places between perennial powerhouses like Boston, Chicago, and LA—would find it nearly inconceivable that the most dominant players in the game are found in Cleveland, Oklahoma City, and Golden State. This tectonic shift in power and talent across the league is thanks, in no small part, to the emergence of social media. With access to the Internet, fans across the globe are now able to watch every player and any team without exception or geographical prejudice.
Adam Silver and the NBA have managed to use social media, an instrument with treacherous capabilities but endless untapped potential, to edge out every other major sports league. Constant updates on teams, players, and moments has made basketball digitally ubiquitous. What happens in the NBA on a day to day basis has become must know information, which is a culture that the MLB and NHL—the other two leagues often criticized for their long, sometimes difficult to follow, seasons—have had trouble inspiring in their fans.
Along with keeping fans interested on a nightly basis, the NBA’s social media footprint has also managed to do something that not even the NFL has been able to accomplish: create a tangible identity for each organization in the league. Fans feel tapped into the personalities of each one of their favorite players and teams. Linking to superstars’ personal accounts and different team pages with every post, not only do fans feel connected to the sport, but also to the lives of their favorite athletes and teams.
For instance, last summer during the DeAndre Jordan free agency drama, a number of different teams and players squared off in an emoji war on Twitter in an attempt to court the big man to their respective cities. The NBA didn’t miss out on the fun either, endorsing different players tweets and even posting some of their own. It’s this type of lighthearted digital activity that makes fans feel a part of the NBA rather than just passive observers.
Making content accessible for everyone, engaging with fans, and creating a sense of identity for the organizations and players of the league, the NBA is setting itself apart from the rest of professional sports and it would be wise of the rest of the sports world to follow in suit.