Welcome To The Friendly Bounce

Pure joy on the face of Kawhi Leonard as he hoists the trophy for the fans during the NBA championship parade at San Antonio River Walk. It’s a beautiful thing. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

First, a word from the Sultan of Podium Bear-ness, HPBN head honcho Matt Moore:

Clickbait (n): An eyecatching link on a website which encourages people to read on.

We chasin’ pageviews, y’all.

OK, not really. The NBA, more so than any other sport, has a whole hidden subculture of awesomeness on the web. The players are more social, both online and in person. The culture of the sport is built around personalities. And more than anything, the NBA is just weird. I mean, really weird. A player was suspended for riding a moped in violation of his contract. Another player pooped in a teammate’s shoe. You know, for fun.

And there are so many great, community-action efforts the players make. All of this before they even step on the court and all their equally weird stuff goes on.

The Friendly Bounce seeks to look at the culture of the NBA, to share what’s hidden underneath that glossy public-relations veneer, and to make you laugh. Everything about sports is so serious now, there should be room to enjoy this basketball culture. We hope you enjoy it. We hope you have fun. We hope you get to learn some stuff.

And yeah.

We hope you click.

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Hey there, Andrew here.

Hello, friends. Sports are fun, remember?

It’s been a hell of an offseason, and it’s often been difficult to remember that we watch the NBA and its amazing, electrifying players for a little bit of entertainment and distraction from the doldrums of real life. And the NBA, for all of its foibles and trials, is really good for that kind of thing. It’s a stupendously fun league, for starters, and the game is second to none in its beauty and splendor.

Yet for all of the on-court glory, the NBA really sets itself apart from other leagues with its off-court goings-on. It’s a quirky place. The league is full of young (and not so young) men with a bit of income and a lot of free time, and the players often use it to have fun. And with all of the social media floating about — twitter, Vine, Instagram, Facebook and the like — the players are more than happy to share their enjoyment of the world with us.

It’s refreshing, really, because I think too often we forget that our favorite professional athletes are people, going through the human experience just like the rest of us. They just happen to have a little bit more disposable income with which to do it, and that means they get to do some really fun things.

And when an NBA player decides to have a little bit of fun and share it with his fans, The Friendly Bounce will be there. This site is dedicated to those tweets and Vines, those Instagram pictures and those Facebook posts. It’s dedicated to the players that star in said social media and to enjoying their shenanigans. So when Nick Young decides to go full Swaggy P — and to bring Swaggy Junior with him to throw an opening pitch — we’ll make sure you know about it. When an NBA player sets up one of his friends to get dunked on (and on a handheld Nerf rim, no less), TFB is on the case. And once the games are back, when the goofiness of 48 minutes of basketball is once again front and center, TFB promises to enjoy every minute of it right alongside you.

Sports are fun. They can be hell sometimes, but they’re a lot of fun. Let’s celebrate that.

Editor’s note: There’s a lot that happens during the course of a day, so if we’re ever missing anything — or if you’d just like to give us a heads-up on something — feel free to send us tips at thefriendlybounce@gmail.com.