Social media helping fill sports void

Two full weeks and no live sports. We’ve made it this far, somehow.

When the NBA announced it was postponing its season March 12, I don’t know if many people expected the sports landscape to be this barren. But here we are.

No race toward the playoffs in basketball and hockey, no opening day in baseball, no college softball and baseball and perhaps the biggest blow, no NCAA tournament.

It’s been a rough two weeks from sports fans’ perspectives. But not as rough as it could have been, thanks to social media.

Over the past 14 days, social media (mainly Twitter) has been on a hot streak.

From the always fun Mount Rushmore conversations, to the absurd memes that have come out of this quarantine period, it hasn’t been a boring two weeks, that’s for sure.

As someone who grew up in the age of video games and also the age of borderline unwatchable sports teams in Cleveland, my favorite childhood activity was playing the NBA 2K series’ association mode.

It’s a mode where you take over control of a team (or multiple teams), acting as the general manager, head coach, owner, etc. Playing those 2K games gave me an appreciation for those lesser-known players, who are now getting some play on social media as memes.

Former Cavaliers Jamario Moon and Lou Admundson have received the meme treatment. Recent semi-viral tweets featuring highlight reels of the two have been making the rounds on Twitter this week. The Admundson highlight reel tweet racked up over 1,000 retweets and 6,000 likes.

Social media, and NBA Twitter in particular, have always been prone to loving the underdogs, the obscure players who don’t get much press. So with the sports world at a standstill, it is their time to shine.

The NBA has always been the top league when it comes to social media, so with the void left without sports, the league is looking to capitalize on its popularity.

It has done that by streaming classic games live on Twitter. Using the hashtag #NBATogetherLive, the league has streamed games such as Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals between the Spurs and Pistons.

Alongside the NBA, the NFL and NHL have both made their streaming services available for free to fans seeking their sports fix.

It’s a small gesture, but one that is much needed in this dark period for sports.

The NFL is opening its streaming service, Game Pass, to the public until May 31, allowing fans to watch any game from the past 11 years on demand.

The NHL’s NHL TV service is free until games resume, giving fans access to any game from the 2019-20 season up until it was postponed. Similar to the NFL’s service, the MLB is opening its vault from the last two seasons allowing for replays of any game.

NBA League Pass is also available for free giving access to replays of games from this season and many other classic games, including the ones the league is streaming on its Twitter.

So while we may not have live sports to keep us company during this pandemic, we have sports and we have each other. And at the end of the day that’s all that really matters.