NBA News - Shut up and enjoy the show: A DubNation "Civil War" is senseless
Being #madonline is distracting some Warriors fans from the beautiful game being played on the court. At its best, NBA Twitter is dope. The community is a vibrant gathering of fans sharing their thoughts and opinions about the game. You can find clever and funny memes and gifs and first quarter overreactions flooding the timeline night after night during the season. It's not unusual to find some teams joining in the fun when they playfully rib each other. Depending on the time of day and the vibe, NBA Twitter epitomizes the essence of the league's cool.
At NBA Twitter's worst, it is a cesspool of delusional fans, insane hot takes and perverted miscreants. These fans pollute the timeline with attacks on each other for a mere difference of opinion. They make up alternate realities devoid of facts for their favorite teams and players. If they're not doing that, they are talking recklessly in the mentions of players.
The antics of NBA Twitter are nothing new to me. It isn't anything that I've never seen before. That all changed about a week ago when I saw parts of Warriors Twitter arguing among themselves about Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and the dynamics of the team.
#TeamKD believes that Warriors fans do not appreciate Durant, his contributions to the team and go out of their way to bash him while #TeamSteph believes that Curry is being disrespected and being treated as an afterthought.
In my opinion, the media narrative and an anti-Curry bias is how we got here. Last season, the media told us that the "Warriors needed Durant". They also said that something was wrong with Curry. He was having a "down year." After Durant's late season injury and a 14-game winning streak when Curry went on a tear, the narrative changed again — this time it was the "Warriors don't need KD". Then, it changed again after Durant's finals performance. Durant was and is seen as the sole reason why the Warriors won while Curry's near triple double performance was widely ignored and in some instances, derided. To Durant's credit, he saw what the media was tying to do after the series and he told them to respect Curry and his game.
We are letting noise distract us from enjoying some of the most beautiful basketball that we have seen in years. The dynamics between Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and these Warrior teams are not for us to analyze, dissect and understand. It's for us to enjoy and to hopefully take in more parades on Lake Merritt in June.