pacers sideblog

main: @tinma

[whatthehali]

Remember, when you're writing NBA Yaoi you're actually fighting evil.

[lukandsee]

Spurs yaoi. whole team gay

[fcurcne]

not bothered (nba rpf, lamelo ball/moussa diabaté, oneshot)

that video of lamelo and moussa has been going around, and moussa keeps bringing it up.

[dragonflyfm62]

[dumbdoegirl]

(wanting to get beat up voice) i bet i could beat you up

[whatthehali]

Harper + Castle Celebrate in Game 7 of the WCF 30/5/26

[milehighbasket]

[cannotacrowmb]

this great interview with tyrese haliburton about his wwe fandom giving me a lot of clarity on why i had some problems with this post about all sports being rpf

ultimately i think this is sort of like the "dante's inferno is fanfiction!" take in that it's like, well, for sure this idea is useful for helping people understand that fanfic/rpf is not really all that outré or different from storytelling practices that get more mainstream respect, but if you don't sort of go forward into "fanfic and dante's inferno are really interesting examples of how texts can be in conversation or in conflict, let's apply other postmodernist ideas here, let's apply other historical materialist ideas here" you're kind of trapped in one particular layer of analysis

like ultimately is it more useful to look at these things (camera work, graphics, marketing, the arrangement of statistics, the amplification of the drama) as rpf, or is it more useful to look at them as kayfabe

i think if we look at them as kayfabe, it gives us a lot of language to talk about the methods through which these characterizations come top-down from the people in charge of the sport, the ways they come bottom-up from the fans; about how intentional the narrativization of sports is, without making the storytelling piece of sports sound more deceitful or nefarious than it is; about ourselves, the crowd, as characters in the story; about gimmicks, pushes, and storylines; faces and heels, who gets to be a face and why, the difference between "being characterized as a heel" and "having a bad reputation", whether people are being treated unfairly by the story and in what ways; in particular, about how a given athlete either leans into being a heel or refuses/resists the role

i thought this was such a great piece of the interview:

i think there's a lot of disinterest in or disdain for wrestling in regular sports fandom on here, i see it used a lot as a punchline or bogeyman ("these officials, this might as well be wwe", "if you can't handle losing go watch wwe"), but as people whose storytelling generally also exists in a weird grey space of entertainment between fact and fiction, i think sports rpf people could stand to take it more seriously. i think there's a lot of navigation through that grey space that people are trying to invent from scratch, and i think that's not always necessary

[isawmars]

Gabby talking about WNBA pride and how player visibility has evolved ("obviously im not straight" 😭 girl we know)

Full video:

[wlwnba]

thank you for posting this, op! 🫶 adding the transcript of what gabby says because i think her words are important:

"Is there a turning point for you where you felt like the other players are just willing to talk about [queerness] in the ways that they are?" "Hm, I think it's like... it's more like you said, we just have the visibility to do it now. I think, um, I think we've always wanted to speak on it, but now we have more of an audience too, and we have more resources to get our word out. I would always say—since I've been in the league, at least—like, the intention has been the same. I know before I was in the league, there was a player who mentioned 'how difficult' it is to be straight, and I've never ever seen that in the league. I don't think that's true at all. I think—obviously, in my experience—any team I've been a part of—obviously I'm not straight [laughs], but like, I feel like it's always been, um, very inclusive for everybody. And I just think, like you said, the visibility and the resources have changed. So now we just see that word spreading a lot more, but I think the players intentions have always been the same."

[dragonflyfm62]

He’s my collar

[whatthehali]

Spurs Bench reacts to Wemby's game winning block 18/5/26

[runasulienadanika]

come on😀mention my favourite character😀i am well adjusted😀and will act very normal😀i assure you😀

[weebtold-deactivated20220613]

[hyperpussy-deactivated20230924]

its real

[identifying-wrestling-moves]

Biting (Illegal Maneuver)

[jeaniefranklins]

Sex scene as character study is so good. What is your relationship to your body? What is your relationship to your partner? What lessons have you absorbed from the culture about yourself as a sexual being? How much do you have to trust someone before being comfortable with intimacy? What fears and insecurities come to the fore for you when you take your clothes off? It's so good.

[urie]

all sports is rpf on some level so sports rpf is the only logical next step

[urie]

the games are real, the stakes are real, the players themselves are unknowable except for what they carefully want you to know. the narratives are real, but the league knows you care about them, so they amplify them. the graphics next to the player's heads to tell you this is how their season is going, the camera lingering on them as they lean down to tie their shoes or their skates, looking solemn, the commentators tell you this is important, the marketing tells you this is important, in case you didnt know. the stories are already there but theyre also well-crafted. you care about these players. you care about how they perform. not just because you want to see your team win but because you want to see the conclusion of the narrative being built around them.

not everyone is doing sports rpf the way you might be familiar with it in fandom spaces, but sports is always, on some level, rpf. the people are real, but the reason you care about them is because a story is being told about them, through numbers, satistics, win/loss ratios, championships. there is an interest in amplifying the drama and centering the narrative so you care more about what you're seeing while watching the game. and is that not simply rpf...........

[halfcourts]

Loving The Timberwolves When They’re Good (Or Bad) - Hanif Abdurraqib for The New Yorker

[realtapiocafan]

obviously jason collins’ life was far more than just this singular article but for me personally, it was one of the first articles that i read about coming out and it’s still incredibly inspiring to me.