Warriors coach Steve Kerr wants his players to come face-to-face with their Twitter trolls.
We will get to that soon.
But first, check out the exchange NBC Sports NBA Insider Tom Haberstroh had with Ethan Strauss of The Athletic on "The Habershow" podcast:
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Haberstroh: "These superstars -- with one flick of the thumb -- can read thousands of Twitter messages (from) fans, haters -- it's intoxicating and it's also toxic."
Strauss: "Yes. It's got the elements of an addiction -- with all the highs and the lows."
Haberstroh: "And for Kevin Durant -- it seemed like a high that he just could not quit. And there are some players in the NBA who are addicted to social media. But they also have family and kids and things to soak up a lot of their time. I get the sense that Kevin Durant is just a hooper -- a basketball savant, a basketball junkie -- and so he can't help himself but to pipe in the reactions in the basketball Twittersphere."
Strauss: "Yeah. He can't help himself. It is this big focus. Famously, just DM'ing random fans all the time -- arguing with them. And it doesn't seem to lead to happiness ... he doesn't have those other things to focus on. He's addicted to the war of what other people think about him, which then ironically makes people think less of him."
Golden State Warriors
Now, we can discuss Kerr's aforementioned idea because at this point in the podcast, Haberstroh brings up an anecdote from Strauss' new book about the Warriors, "The Victory Machine."
Here is the excerpt:
Kerr would wonder if there was a way to combat the modern onslaught on the psyche. Maybe, just maybe, if he could it all over, the power of actualization might defeat certain demons.
"I have this idea to somebody bring in a few of their detractors from Twitter," Kerr said of the Twitter trolls. "Like actually find them and bring them, set the fans in front of them. 'Kevin, this is Joe from Portola Valley. Joe said that you were a loser yesterday. Now look at him. Look at him carefully. Do you really care what he thinks?' "
This time, by bringing what's written into reality, Kerr might reveal its falseness as opposed to its self-evident truth.
"The flip side is, Joe would be completely embarrassed," Kerr said of his plan. "He'd be like, 'I can't believe I wrote that. I'm so sorry. I'm an idiot. Can I have your autograph?' "
First and foremost -- this concept is laugh-out-loud hilarious.
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Secondly -- would it be successful?
"I don't think it would have worked," Strauss told Haberstroh. "But I would have loved to have seen it tried ... I hope he does it in the future."
Same. This needs to happen, and it needs to be filmed.