Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge is officially good at Twitter.
Kyrie Irving dropped 47 points and six assists on a ridiculous 16-of-22 shooting in an overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks Monday night. The game itself was, on some levels, a little unsettling. The Mavericks are the worst team in the NBA. The Celtics have the league’s best record and rank first in points allowed per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. Letting this one leak into overtime is a fundamental failure from a competition’s standpoint.
In a more general context, though, it doesn’t matter. The Celtics trailed late in the fourth quarter, and they kept coming. They made a few big buckets and couple key defensive stops—including one by Irving himself.
Anyway, Ainge was feeling himself and Irving afterward, so he took the opportunity to tweet a flat-Earth joke:
Maybe the world is flat??@KyrieIrving #celticworld
— Danny Ainge (@danielrainge) November 21, 2017
As far as middle-aged white dudes using Twitter go, this is A-plus work. It encompasses so many things: The absurdity of Irving’s initial Earth statement, the epic nature of his performance, the length of the Celtics’ winning streak (16 games)—everything. I, personally, commend Ainge for his opportunistic trolling and Kyrie worship and fairly good hashtagging.
If I had one complaint about this tweet, it would be the “@KyrieIrving” tag. The placement feels forced and not at all organic. This would have read with a little more subtle pizzazz had he just left it out entirely. Yes, tagging Irving might get more eyes on it, but exposure isn’t an issue. Everyone would have gotten the joke, and Ainge is followed by enough big whigs to get the word out. (Random but true: I didn’t follow him prior to this article. I do not know why.)
Yes, I get how bizarre this post might seem. We just spent the last 300ish words talking about Danny Ainge’s Twitter. Needless to say, the 2017-18 NBA season is already all kinds of woke.
