The Great Debate

Joe Randazzo

I fell into the rabbit hole of professional sports banter. This mainly consisted of NBA discussion, but I ended up reading NFL disagreements. I used twitter as my medium. I think this is a good example because of the discussions that ensue under an original post. This is a place for users to comment how they may feel about the original post and for others to respond to comments. It is supposed to be a discussion but frequently ends without much progress made.

My experience started just scrolling through Twitter. I follow not only many accounts but also certain topics. The topics are a new feature to twitter I believe in the last year or so, that allows the user to see tweets from accounts they don’t follow, but are tweeting about a topic of interest for that user. Joel Embiid is my favorite NBA player and there is an ongoing drama with his teammate Ben Simmons. Simmons is a star player but notoriously doesn’t shoot jump shots and can’t hit free throws. This may seem like an oxymoron and thats why the discussions get so heated.

I was reading a tweet comparing Joel Embiid to Lakers big man Anthony Davis. The comments were comparing the two’s skill, success, and availability. Both are star players who have dealt with recurring injury problems throughout their career. Anthony Davis has had more success because he won the NBA title with the Lakers in 2020. In the replies, some were claiming its unfair to evenly compare team success because Davis won with Lebron James and Embiid’s teammate Simmons won’t even shoot the ball in the 4th quarter of a game 7 playoff game.

As twitter threads often do, the conversation became sidetracked. Any conversation remotely including Lebron James usually ends with a comparison to Michael Jordan. James vs Jordan seems like the question of the decade so far because people get so passionate when debating the two.

Its interesting to me to see how going through these threads can lead the user to a different conversation or subject than the one the original post was covering. It reminds me of a spiderweb which is why its funny the internet was once called “the web”. These platforms are used by so man people across the globe it really keeps things interesting and is easy to hear other people’s perspectives.

The conversation somehow went from Embiid vs Davis, to Lebron vs Jordan, and finally to Tom Brady being compared to Patrick Mahomes. The debate continued, even though it doesn’t quite make sense. This isn’t abnormal for a twitter thread. The users started comparing Michael Jordan to Tom Brady and Mahomes to Lebron. This really doesn’t make sense because Mahomes is the only one of the four who is still on the early side of his career. That is quite the compliment to Mahomes though and speaks to his greatness.

After all, my conclusion is that people on the internet get worked up and upset way too easily. Its also really easy for someone like me to read these arguments and be entertained for some amount of time.

Related posts:

Era o terceiro round e as pessoas que assistiam estavam todas em pé, tentando ver por ângulos melhores o que o combate proporcionava. Um deles tentava seguir uma estratégia de longa distância…

Among many other theories of our universe the idea we are living in a simulation has become prevalent. Like most other religions there is no solid proof of this theory. While many religions say that…

China presents a huge opportunity for international alcohol businesses, but selling to China is a long, rigorous process, from following import regulations and submitting the required documentation…