2017: a year of sports ‘firsts’
We can all agree that 2016 was a forgetful year, until 2017 came along and said, “hold my beer.” Globally, natural disasters serially struck, devastating millions of people and, quite literally, turning their worlds upside-down. Nationally, civil unrest and domestic terror serially struck, and, as a survival tactic, that’s about as much negativity as I will acknowledge herein.
From peewee to professional, watching organized sports is arguably the best way that humans forget about the aforementioned stressors of life and create communities. Personally, my favorite leagues to watch are the NBA and the NFL. I’m a full-time Portland Trail Blazers fan and part-time New York Giants fan, and no, you don’t have to tell me — I already know my teams suck.
2017 was a year of personal sports ‘firsts.’ The best part? I never saw it coming.
The Inception
I chalk it all up to December 28, 2016, when I placed my first of many TRILLBLAZIN orders. This is a small Portland-based clothing brand that has Trail Blazers takes on renowned brands’ aesthetics in American pop culture. I received the goods and, obviously enamored by the concept, I wore the clothing any chance I could. Given that I wore them so much, my best friend would photograph me in the articles, tagged them on socials, and over time, they noticed and interacted with me. Not only is their business likable, so are their Twitter takes. I hope what co-founders Ira and Keith notice most, however, is how much I respect them for being hilarious, but not harmful with their comedy.
A few days into 2017, the Trail Blazers Twitter account (then-managed by Kris Koivisto) responded to one of my tweets and @Mr_Portland (a.k.a. Jake McGrady) on Twitter retweeted me, both skyrocketing impressions and engagements on my page. I recall Kris following my account shortly after and Jake being, if not the first, then one of the first members of the Rip City Twitter community that followed me back years ago.
February rolled around and Portland engaged in a trade with Denver, in which Portland received Jusuf Nurkić and a first-round pick for Mason Plumlee, a future second-rounder, and cash considerations. This transaction changed the course of the rest of my, among many others’, year.
Portland welcomed Nurkić with open arms and he immediately delivered that energy right back to the team and fans. He took on the role of Rip City’s proverbial concrete rose. On March 7, 2017, Nurkić wore an iconic t-shirt into the arena prior to a home game against the Nets. This infamous photo depicts the custom t-shirt made by Nurkić’s girlfriend, Emina Duric:
The media and fans erupted in response to this basketball WAG’s power move. Not only does Duric make her NBA boyfriend a t-shirt in which she asserts her territory, he actually wears it proudly! If this isn’t love, then I’m not sure what is. My internet friend, Michaela Mellmer, retweeted the original photo (by Justin Jett) and wrote “me as a girlfriend.” This is most definitely something I, and many of us, would also do as an NBA WAG. As a result, “Jusuf Nurkić’s gf™” on Twitter was born.
The Come-Up
It was nearing the end of the NBA 2016–2017 regular season when Portland clinched a playoff berth at the eighth seed. On April 10, 2017, I decided that I wanted to watch Game 2 of Round 1 of the playoffs, wherein the eighth seed Trail Blazers played the first seed Golden State Warriors. Not just watch with anyone, mind you — I wanted to watch with California transplanted Blazers fans like me.
I moved to San Francisco in 2013. It takes a special kind of psycho to not only be a loyal fan after transplanting outside of the team’s regional fanbase, but to be a fan of said team when residing in a city with the best basketball team in the country? DUMB AF. Being a die-hard Blazer fan with an unsettling passion for the team and town in #DubNation is not easy. I’m not gonna lie — there have been many moments since 2015 where I wanted to jab a bandwagon Warriors fan in the jugular, but I digress. I understood that finding like-minded Blazers fans who yearned for the same sense of community that Rip Citizens had back home was going to be crucial for me eventually. What better time for “eventually” than Round 1 of playoffs?
Via Twitter, I organized Alex Tam, Curtis Espadera, and John Gefroh to meet up at one of my favorite San Franciscan sports bars: the San Francisco Athletic Club (SFAC). John, who, again, was one of the first in Rip City Twitter that followed me back ages ago, augmented the effort by cc’ing all the PDX-to-Bay Area Blazers fans he knew to invite them to this watch party. I’m not sure he knows this, but I proclaim John as the founder of the Beta Theta Pi Eta (BΘΠΗ a.k.a. BTPH a.k.a. Both Teams Played Hard) Portland-to-California transplant fraternity. I just organize the monthly events.
I have said this time and time again, but I genuinely expected a grand total of one person to actually show up. I expected that this experience was only going to confirm that I was another typical, overachieving Blazers fan who would have to pick up SFAC’s requisite minimum tab, get solo dolo blackout drunk in a bar packed to the brim with Warriors fans, and be the laughingstock of San Francisco, especially after we lose the game. If that sounds dramatic to you, I should mention that I grew up in the theatre.
Nearly 20 people showed up that evening.
Alex didn’t end up making it over the bridge, but most attendees were John’s friends and friends of those friends. Contrastingly, some just saw my tweet randomly and decided to join us. Others had no idea who any of us were, and just happened to stumble upon our group of Blazers fans in this one specific sports bar in the heart of the city. This was the most Blazers fans I had ever seen in one place outside of the Rose Garden. It was surreal. I asked each one of the attendees that night whether they would show up to another watch party and, incredibly, they each responded with a resounding “yes!” I could not care less that we lost the game that night. I found a new family, or rather, we found each other.
Finally, I thought to myself. I finally found what I had been looking for.
I planned to attend the subsequent playoff game, Game 3, which was the first home game of the series in Portland. One of the watch party attendees, Ashtyn Butuso, whom I didn’t know previously, overheard that I was going to the game and asked if I would be interested in creating content for the female-centric sports media start-up she worked for, The Relish. Of course, I agreed — I would be Instagramming and Snapchatting the entire experience anyway! Little did my past self know, this agreement would be the beginning of a beautiful Blazers friendship.
On April 22, 2017, I drove with my best friend from San Francisco to be in Portland for a 21 hours. Around this time was when Portland’s funniest human, Ian Karmel, discovered I existed and retweeted me. Thank the basketball and comedic gods for him, because the world is a better place with him in it.
Amazingly, my best friend, Bethany Avila, is a down-ass b*tch and does nearly anything I ask of her. She is neither from Portland nor a Blazers fan, but she has been with me every step of the way this year. For that, I am truly grateful, because none of this would have been possible without her emotional support, constant encouragement, and creative direction. Together, I was able to give her a little taste of my hometown. We ate at my favorite Portland restaurant, Waffle Window, shot digital content for The Relish, and physically and mentally prepared ourselves for Game 3 (well, one of us did).
The energy at the Rose Quarter was, of course, electric. How many NBA teams can you count have undergone tumultuous roster changes over the past four years and made an appearance in the playoffs each season? The rest of the night was a whirlwind, but I got to hang out with Blaze, I met Baby ‘Minu and Baby CJ, and the next day, Twitter pointed out that I had made it onto ESPN’s homepage.
From there, Team Relish loved what Bethany and I did, so they called me into the studio to produce my first episode of “Catch Up with The Relish,” a weekly series of 60-second sports recaps.
On May 31, 2017, I recorded my first podcast with Evan McCarthy and Dillon Sage produced by Sage Digital. Initially, I was so hesitant because it’s one thing to scroll past my 140-character tweets and like a few memes I make, but I can’t understand why someone would want to hear what I have to say about the Blazers. Even more, as a trained actor, I was accustomed to saying words that were written on a script — always my own performance, but never my own thoughts. A few people actually listened to my awkward self!!! Needless to say, I was shook, although Evan did a great job facilitating the dialogue and Sage did an amazing job at editing out as much superfluous dead space as possible.
From Game 2 on, I knew I had to meet all the Portland-based Blazers fans I knew on the internet, but hadn’t met in real life. I met Jake at Game 3 and essentially talked on the phone for an hour with Evan and Sage, but I knew I wanted to properly hang out with as many people as possible at Spirit of 77 in the off-season when I returned to Portland in June for a conference.
Eventually, the Warriors went on to win the 2016–2017 championship… *eyes physically cannot roll any harder.* Whatever. I can’t wait ’til the Blazers win the 2017–2018 championship, h/t John. Team Relish and I crossed the bay and attended the Warriors parade on June 15, 2017 to cover dope female sports fans in the madness.
The funniest and most serendipitous part about this day was that I met somebody online as a result of the Facebook Live video and it developed into the inaugural “Relish-ionship.” This relishionship did not last, but, to me, it was a clear manifestation of (1) the power of the internet, and (2) that following your passions leads to attracting goodness. #TeamInternet.
At the first public event that The Relish hosted, “Love + Basketball: NBA Finals / The Bachelorette watch party,” I found out that I received a $10,000 grant, the third grant to fund my Master’s research. It’s amazing how worlds collide in this way. This segued perfectly into attending and presenting at my first international conference, Evolution 2017, which was held in none other than my hometown. *Cue “Circle of Life”*
The first night I flew into PDX was the 2017 NBA Draft Night. I was invited by my internet friends Rachelle Nilo and her beau Josip Rajić to attend the Trail Blazers’ Craft Draught Draft Party at the Rose Garden. It was so special to not only have a double-date night with Rachelle, Josip, and Alex Haigh, but also a mini Rip City Twitter fan party by meeting Keith Feltner-Smith there. In fact, as we were leaving, Colin Moore stopped me and said, “Twitter fam?” I had never attended a draft party before, and this one was for the books.
On June 24, 2017, I met my internet bestie Gracey Altree along with everyone from Draft Night and so many others at Spirit of 77. It was my first time bar-hopping in Portland, believe it or not, and I couldn’t have thought of a better selection of people to experience that with. Thank God for Twitter. I finally met Evan McCarthy IRL. I also had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas Nanpei, Ananth Pandian, and Evan Sowards. I now consider Gracey a soul sister and Alex is integral to creating my digital content. I’m jealous I don’t live near them, but I can’t wait to see what these two hilarious, female sports fans get into together.
Throughout the off-season, the legendary Team Mom, Tara Bowen-Biggs, established #OffSeasonBookClub where we read Loose Balls by Terry Pluto as a community. I thought this was a fantastic idea. Wanting to learn more about the history of the ABA and NBA, I happily participated and encouraged anyone and everyone to join in. Sage had the brilliant idea of listening to the audiobook. Hopefully, this is a tradition we can continue indefinitely.
I also did my last episode of “Catch Up.” R.I.P. to a great series.
On August 16, 2017, Rip City Project contributor Dayton Brown reached out to me and asked if I would like to be featured in a Blazer fan spotlight piece. I couldn’t object. It was such an honor to be involved in an article of this nature alongside Keith, Jake, and Carlos Loyola. I felt proud to represent my fellow female Blazers fans.
On October 13, 2017, I realized I needed a break from my Master’s studies. I felt frustrated at my failures, I felt behind in my Master’s timeline, and I felt the pull of my hometown. I returned to Portland for the third time this year, and, for this townie, it was the perfect quiet escape from the fast-paced city. I watched the boys in a pre-season game with my date Gracey and the ladies of Women’s Hoops and Talks (W.H.A.T.). It was especially fun and relaxing as it was my first experience in the suites at the Rose Garden (now Moda Center), thanks to Tara, W.H.A.T., and Moda Health. Bucket list item: ✔️
October marks the beginning of the best quarter of the year: the NBA returns.
On October 18, 2017, the BΘΠΗ fraternity held our season-opener watch party at Big Rec Taproom where the Blazers made history and blew out the Suns by nearly 50 points. Talk about establishing hope for the season.
Beta brother Varoon Bose invited Suns fan Sreekar Jasthi and we all bonded over being anti-Warriors ball club. The only good that comes from NBA super teams is that Warriors hatred brings the rest of the world together.
Another totally unbiased reason why this is the best quarter of the year is that my birthday, a.k.a. #Nilaween, falls on November 1st. This year’s birthday was unforgettable. Rip City blew me away with their well-wishes, including when Lamar Hurd shouted it out on the post-game broadcast alongside Kevin Calabro. Ya girl shed a single thug tear that night. Lamar has made a concerted effort at integrating into the community and interacting with the fans since his contract initiated with the Trail Blazers this season. The fans know he reads our tweets and he is aware about the importance of the fan-to-team connectivity. I appreciate that, and am proud to say I found a friend in him.
I could not think of a more perfect way to round out this year than to tell San Francisco-based, female sports media start-up, The Relish, the history of my Blazermania on the series premiere of “Style Uniform” on Facebook Watch. I was cast in the episode that would premiere the series, which Ashtyn and I were excited about, and we hoped that Rip City would be excited, too. I grew to love this series concept as I began to understand it more and more, because it’s not surface-level at all like I had originally thought. It’s nuanced and complex, weaving together history, culture, and personal style, and even promoting local small business ethics and tourism. Simply brilliant.
CJ McCollum surely approved of it. *More tears*
On December 11, 2017, the largest aggregation of Blazers fans in history (probably) banded at Oracle Arena during the first game against the Warriors of the 2017–2018 season. We laughed. We cheersed. We were kicked out of the Sierra Nevada Draught House that evening. And we lost (surprise).
The Future
You may have noticed a trend. Virtually the entire build-up this year was through a singular social platform: Twitter. There is a consensus that Twitter is a social channel that is disproportionately precious to sports fans. This is the channel we source our teams’ free agency recruitments, our trade deadline package deals, our injury reports, and our viral sports videos and memes.
Rip City Twitter is a place where I inhabit a tiny niche. What is extremely humbling about it is the pseudo home-away-from-home community that has been established, fostered, and is ever-growing. I joke about how having internet friends is the best, but there exists such truth in that statement. As a person who doesn’t have very many friends in general, I find solace in knowing I can always turn to Rip City Twitter when needed.
My Twitter family challenges me.
They’ve asked me for advice on how to move on from heartache, cope with bullying, get down from the ledge that they found themselves on, and remain steadfast in a sea of trying times. They’ve also asked me for advice on how to slide into their crush’s DMs and what Blazers gear to purchase. One has even said, “Thank God for you, because without you, it wouldn’t be cool to be a Blazers fan in the Bay Area.”
Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If misery loves company, misery has company enough.” I can attest to misery definitely loving company, as Rip City Twitter and I have shared a common hatred for super teams, snakes, and cold takes. We’ve laughed together a lot. I’ve cried an abnormal amount. The avenues are infinite (especially during the off-season when I’ve found myself in deep, dark corners of Rip City Twitter smh). They accept me for the psychopath that I am and allow me to freely say out-of-pocket sh*t that I can’t quite say to anyone else.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to every person behind every screen name that has been a part of this chapter.
It’s hard to fathom that this is only the beginning. I cannot wait to see where the community grows from here. From Rip City to the world. 🚀
