Author Archives: Deepal Patel

The Toaster Era

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any superstitions in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a comment about the “winningness” of the Golden State Warriors.

 

 

“I can’t think of any pregame superstitions or anything like that, but there is this thing that recently came up about a toaster that Klay [Thompson] signed. Some guy on Reddit went to a Klay autograph signing but instead of a shirt or a basketball, he had Klay sign his official Warriors-branded toaster. This kinda became a meme in itself because Klay was just so dumbfounded about signing the toaster that there are pictures of the awkward pause right before he signed it. But, since then, the Warriors are undefeated. This is now known as the Toaster Era and the Warriors are 20-0 in the Toaster Era.”

 

The interviewer had heard about the “Toaster Era” but didn’t know what it was attributed to in the first place. More than anything, this whole thing seems like a passing meme about the Warriors’ insane ability to win against any team in the NBA. I really doubt that the Warriors are undefeated solely due to the toaster, but it is nevertheless entertaining to think of this superstition as a reason for their repeated victories.

 

Linsanity

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any legendary stories in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a certain player’s meteoric rise in the NBA, an era called Linsanity, named for Jeremy Lin

 

“Linsanity started off as a pretty mundane thing in the NBA. One of the more athletic players, Jeremy Lin was rising through the ranks in early 2012 when players like Kobe Bryant were in their prime and no one had heard of Jeremy Lin before this. Players in the NBA do get better, but no one ever did it as fast as Lin did, until his performance against the Lakers with Kobe at his prime. Just a year before this he was considered a poor player, and even a month before he was seen as a bench player, at best. The day of the Lakers game, it was fair to say that no one expected him to put up even 20 points, let alone 38 points. He even forced Kobe to play for longer than he intended to and still outscored him. This was the pinnacle of Linsanity”


The interviewer thought this story was interesting, but he heard a different spin on the Linsanity era. As far as he had known, the reason for the large amounts of attention Lin was getting was due to a minority’s increased prevalence in the league. He can definitely appreciate just how the era of Linsanity must have felt to his fans and NBA viewers. Lin was in the league knocking on the doors of the greats, having been dismissed completely just so quickly beforehand.

The Godfather of the NBA

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any superstitions in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a postseason ritual that he knows Lebron James does.

 

“So every year that Lebron makes it to the playoffs, which is really often, he has a series of requirements that he forces himself to meet in order to get him into that killer mindset. And it all involves the Godfather movies. Lebron watches the entire franchise end to end and he must be alone as he does it. After that, he’ll read a physical copy of the original book while he works out and prepares to be in playoff shape. He’ll also start to treat his team dynamic in similar ways to the dynamics presented in the movie. It’s all some pretty intense stuff.”


The interviewer keeps up with the NBA himself but didn’t know about this admittedly arcane postseason ritual Lebron goes through. He also finds it a little hard to believe that Lebron does this every time he makes it past the regular season because it tends to happen every year recently. Regardless, it is entertaining to know that even NBA stars are subject to some superstitions about their game.

Fizdale is a Legend

This entry was given to the interviewer through digital means. The interviewer asked the informant, Sahit, about any legendary stories in the NBA he knows because of Sahit’s die-hard obsession to the sport. He replied with a certain coach’s recent interview after a blowout.

 

“So this happened after a pretty bad loss to the Spurs in the playoffs. Coach Fizdale, the Grizzlies’ coach, was asked for a statement after the game and it wasn’t hard to tell that he was pretty pissed off about how the game went because of foul calls that went mostly to the Spurs. In fact at the end of the game, just one player on the Spurs had more calls than the entirety of Fizdale’s team. He got really angry during the interview and made statements like “They ain’t gon rook us” and “Take that for data” that quickly became viral. It turned into meme status overnight. Text-based comment boards for the NBA all over the internet started to apply his statements to every little aspect of unfairness seen in the NBA and it was pretty funny. Still, overall, pretty legendary of Fizdale to go out and say that.”


The interviewer remembered seeing the interview posted online but didn’t know that it had escalated to “meme status” in NBA communities. Taken out of context, I suppose that the statements “they ain’t gon rook us” and “take that for data” would become funny if used for every single circumstance.

Fistbumping

This entry can loosely be described as videogame folklore. The interviewer (D) and the informant, C, were playing a game called Super Smash Bros for the Wii, a widely popular fighting game with well documented analysis for every character, stage, and since two players tend to face each other from a list of characters, every potential matchup as well. There are many unwritten rules that players follow to observe proper “etiquette” when playing the game. The game is played with 4 lives “stocks” and set to an 8-minute timer. The first to force their opponent to lose their stocks is declared winner. It is proper tournament etiquette to fistbump before games start.

 

This interaction occurred after both players had chosen their characters for the next game. The process of “striking stages” happens in order to preferentially pick stages for the next game to happen on.

 

D: let’s strike stages. I’ll go first, strike Dreamland

C: strike FD

D: strike PS2

C: Alright, so Yoshi’s

*both fistbump*


The interviewer notes the gesture of fistbumping as an unsaid mutual agreement that both players can proceed to the next match. There are no explicit rules stating players must fistbump to play the game, of course, but even in friendly play this simple gesture indicates you have a working level of respect for your opponent. It conveys a “no hard feelings” attitude that works for both parties, winner or loser.