Fansided

What is the difference between a fan and a troll? NBA Twitter weighs in

By Shea Corrigan

HOUSTON, TX - MAY 14: A view of the fans in Game One of the Western Conference Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets during the 2018 NBA Playoffs on May 14, 2018 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - MAY 14: A view of the fans in Game One of the Western Conference Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets during the 2018 NBA Playoffs on May 14, 2018 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Basketball Twitter is bigger than ever and that means more fans and more trolls. So, what’s the difference?

NBA Twitter — or basketball Twitter, if you prefer its nondenominational, brand-free name — is big. According to Twitter, the NBA is the most tweeted about sports league and those numbers barely dip when you look at last year’s offseason numbers. Seventy-three percent of users have identified interest in basketball conversation and are consequently served NBA-related tweets. Which is just to say, there are a lot of people tweeting about basketball every day.

Media members, NBA writers and bloggers as well as athletes and athlete’s loved ones and coaches and team accounts are easily the highest profile users tweeting about the game. But there are plenty of fans and trolls changing the makeup, dynamic and tone of those conversations.

Here, nine writers, bloggers and fans interviewed for FanSided’s story on the evolution of the NBA Twitter community try to define the difference between a fan and a troll — and conclude its mostly a matter of intent and attitude.

Alex Kungu, @Kungu_NBA

"So I think it’s a very, very tight line. But I think a troll is someone who will comment to you or say something to you with no other intention but just to like, incite you, upset you or elicit some type of emotion. Where a fan, it just comes deep inside. It just comes from a spot of an emotional reaction to a team. It’s not just, I want to make you mad or I want to say something. It’s because, like, I’m just so frustrated, I’m so frustrated by this team, what the heck. I don’t understand X player, what the heck. What is this? So, I think the biggest thing, at the core of it, is the intention. Where is this comment coming from?"

Seerat Sohi, @DamianTrillard

"I guess it can kind of be the same thing. I think it’s more about your personality. Twitter is a great place to have a sh*t-eating grin, I troll occasionally. I don’t know, I think they can be one and the same. I guess trolls are more purposefully provocative about things, but I think fans are provocative without really realizing it because sometimes they are so biased — obviously some fans aren’t — but I don’t know. I think calling people trolls has also become a reaction to being able to see all these opinions. Like if you are a Warriors fan and you go deep into the conversations Cavs fans are having, you’re going to be like, what the hell, these people are stupid, because your perspective is totally different. So once you’re exposed to that, you’re a little more likely to see trolls. And I think there’s a lot more trolling because there’s a lot more arguments and when you’re right, you can come forth and be hyperbolic about stuff. I think that’s definitely increased. That’s mostly fans that are doing that. I don’t know if there’s too much of a difference."

Matt Moore, @HPBasketball

"I think a fan wants to understand what he loves more. So, if you’re a fan and you love basketball, you want to know, well, I like the Blazers, and I think they’re good, but everyone says their defense is bad, why? It looks okay to me, what’s the problem? And I think having the genuine curiosity to understand things shows an understanding of the sport that’s inherent to fandom. I think the difference with a troll is largely that they are just blasting out an emotion-based expression. They are just basically emoting, is what a lot of comes down to. And when it becomes hate, contempt is the feeling their expressing towards the view that you positioned. So, f- you, the Blazers are awesome — like there’s nothing that contributes there. If you ask me, if you say, I don’t know if that’s accurate, if you look at it, the Blazers defense has actually been top 3 all year, and that’s too large of a sample to ignore, that’s a good point, you know? That’s a well thought out reason and explanation.If you argue something, it’s because you believe in the team and you want good things for them, but you’re not just spewing out raw emotion. And that to me is the trick, trolling is just built on wanting to antagonize to express a feeling and that’s problematic."

Katee Forbis, @KateeForbis

"I would say trolls are…fans are just passionate and emotional, but it’s because they’re passionate and they care about their team. And trolls are emotional but, I don’t know if you can quote this, but they’re assholes. You know what I mean? The purpose for what they’re saying is different than what a fan is saying. A fan may be ranting and going off about a player on their team that they don’t like but it’s coming from a position or a place of them really caring, and being very emotionally invested. And then a troll is just more, what can I say that’s going to get me attention. What can I say that’s going to get me retweeted? I think trolls like to press buttons. And so, I think that’s probably the biggest difference."

John Karalis, @RedsArmy_John

"Well, a fan watches the games and is invested in the result of the game and, even if they say something that may be extreme, they say it out of love for the team that is playing, or just hatred for the opponent — that natural, you’re playing my team so I hate you. A fan will look at that and have emotional reactions. Yeah, some of it might not be great, but it’s born from a love for the game, their team and the sport.A troll is specifically out to elicit a reaction and derive joy from annoying you. And when you block a troll on Twitter, they see that as a badge of honor. There have been a number of people that I’ve seen who are obvious trolls who will list in their profiles “blocked by so and so” they are actively trying to get blocked. They are actively trying to poke you.The other person is not trying to poke you to get a reaction, they’re just in your face having an argument with you, which I can respect on some level. I do not respect trolls. Trolls are the scourge, trolls are the barnacle on the bottom of the boat. They are terrible, but they come with the territory."

Jason Concepcion, @netw3rk

"A troll will say things that they don’t believe in just to get a reaction, just to get people mad. There’s some overlap there, the Venn diagram between fan and troll, certainly there is a middle area, but a fan is just out there because something about the particular sport or particular team or particular player or something speaks to them and entertains them and entrances them. It’s something that they need to use Twitter to express their love for that thing, or disappointment in that thing, or whatever. Whereas a troll is someone who is like, let me find out what people like and I’m going to sh*t on that thing in a way that makes them mad. That to me is what a troll does. A troll is just out there to cause negativity. They should be avoided at all costs. But then again, there’s some people out there that troll all the way up to a very lucrative job, so."

Andy Liu, @AndyKHLiu

"I think a fan is someone that is unabashedly…they just want their team to do well. That’s a fan. At the end of the day, they just want their team to do well. So, a Warriors fan, they don’t care about anything else. They just say, hey, we want Steph to play well, we want KD to play well, we want LeBron to suck. That’s it.A troll, I think, is a person — and I’ll say this for myself — but I would say for myself, I would like to think I’m a little bit more self-aware when I do it, so it makes it more fun. I don’t pretend to not be a Warriors homer and that’s the other thing as well. So I would say a troll is someone that makes performance art out of relishing in other people’s failures. And blowing that up in a way that is funny, right. So it’s not about the Warriors being great, to me, it’s what jokes can I make at the expense of everyone else that also makes my team look good, what can I say about Russ, what I can say about LeBron kicking off Kyrie? What can I use in the news to make myself look right?And then also just exaggerate the whole thing."

Next: The transformation of NBA Twitter

TJ Adeshola, @TJay

"I think a fan is somebody who has exhibited an affinity for a particular team or property or player and they cheer for that person. Like, LeBron is awesome, check out this stat. Or, I can’t believe he just made this shot. Or check out this dunk. I think, by definition, a troll is someone who is attempting to just kind of make light of a situation. So, their priority may not be to cheer on their favorite team or cheer on their favorite player. Their priority may be to make light or poke fun at a particular topic around basketball or not.So I think a fan is one you can clearly see their affinity, you can clearly see their allegiances, and a troll is just somebody who is kind of poking around to make light or have fun about things."

Ian Levy, @HickoryHigh

"I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. By definition, a fan’s interactions would be positive interactions and a troll interactions would be negative interactions. But I think, I think trolling is just sort of part of the experience. Like, being a fan may mean a trolling mindset for rivals, for friendly rivals, for hated rivals, but also like there’s plenty of fan kismet to be had in like playfully trolling your own players and the things they’re bad at or their own weird idiosyncrasies or things of that nature."

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