Kyle Korver’s Atlanta Hawks want you to get your Tinder on. Image: David Tulis/Associated Press While the players on the court try to put it in the hole, aspiring players in the stands will look to score as well. The NBA‘s Atlanta Hawks are hosting “Swipe Right Night” for fans of the team and users of Tinder, the ever-popular dating (read: hooking up) app. At time of this writing, details were scant. But this is a real thing happening on Wednesday. It’s going down, we’re yelling…swipe riiiiiiiiight! Tickets: http://t.co/Y3WapEohHu pic.twitter.com/e8EWjYE3QZ — Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 5, 2015 Before you laugh (well, it’s probably too late for that), remember that some professional athletes do use Tinder. Will any Atlanta benchwarmers be swiping from the sidelines? The Eastern Conference-leading Hawks, which includes a player with emoji tattoos, is one of the NBA’s most creative teams on social media. So what appears to be the very first tinder night in pro sports history isn’t all that far-fetched for the team. A team spokesperson told Mashable that more details on just what “Swipe Right Night” entails will arrive soon. We’ll be sure to update this post when we receive them. UPDATE: Here’s more detail from the Hawks, pasted from a Tuesday afternoon press release. The Atlanta Hawks are encouraging fans to use the people-connecting mobile app Tinder to transform Philips Arena into the premier social networking hub in the NBA. “Swipe Right Night” will take place on Jan. 7, when the Eastern Conference-leading Hawks welcome the Memphis Grizzlies to town for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. “Hawks games have always been a great place to meet fun and vibrant people and we think ‘Swipe Right Night’ will take that to a whole new level,” said Hawks CEO Steve Koonin. “We were pioneers of the in-game ‘Kiss Cam’ and are hopeful that we can assist in making some more love connections at our games.” Fans who use the app can simply swipe right to express interest in meeting other Hawks fans while at the venue. If the user gets a like in return … it’s a match. Designated in-arena locations will be provided for Tinder users to meet and will also include the chance to mingle with Jezebel Magazine’s Most Eligible Atlantans, who will also be in attendance. The night’s theme of connecting Hawks fans will include unique in-game promotions and continue when team radio broadcast partner 92-9 The Game treats select fans to a special dating game involving on-air talent. BONUS: 25 of YouTube’s Funniest Sports Fails Sports Fails 1. Golf Cart Fail This runaway vehicle wreaked minor on-field havoc following a high school football championship in Texas last December. But a heroic bystander hopped aboard and put on the brakes. No casualties occurred, and the clip immediately became Internet legend. 2. Penalty Kick Fail Watch out for the ricochet, goalie! This kid gets it in the right in the chops. 3. Mascot on Rollerblades Fail What happens when you put an inflatable dinosaur on […]
The NBA‘s first game ever was played on Nov. 1, 1946 — 66 years ago today. A bunch of white guys wore short shorts, ran the ol’ three man weave and hoisted two-handed set shots from a court bereft of a three-point line. The New York Knickerbockers took down the Toronto Huskies by a score of 68-66 in front of 7,090 fans that day. If you were taller than six-foot-eight George Nostrand, you got free admission. If you weren’t, however, the max you would have had to pay was $2.50. Player salaries, meanwhile, averaged about $5,000 for a season. Thanks to YouTube, the old-school newsreel above shows us just how far the game has come since 1946. The best Knicks tickets today cost thousands of dollars, even marginal players can earn $10 million per year (we’re looking at you, Andris Biedrins) and spectators of the league’s first game certainly didn’t see plays like this: Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/first-nba-game-video/
10 Epic Trick Shot Stunts on YouTube 1. Bow and Arrow Trick Shots This dude is awesome. 2. Billy’s Balls 2 Who knew you could have so much fun with a ping pong ball? 3. Hey, Pass Me A Beer! This recent viral hit elevates the simple act of passing a beer to Olympic levels. 4. Mini Golf Trick Shots Fact: You have never seen mini golf played like this. 5. Trick Shot Basketball – Dude Perfect – Summer Camp Edition The Dude Perfect crew is master of the basketball trick shot. 6. Vinyl Throw: MusicBunk This viral marketing stunt is brilliantly done. 7. Waboba Trick Shots (Part 1) The How Ridiculous guys show off their Waboba skills in fine style. 8. Ice Cold Bowling Trick Shots The cold weather just adds to the cool in this fun video. 9. Frisbee Trick Shots – Brodie Smith Brodie Smith sure can throw a mean Frisbee. 10. Epic Trick Shots – The Football Edition These cute kids are the future of the trick shot video genre. BONUS: Guys Backflip Into Jeans Finally, we’re adding this viral hit to our list. Though there’s technically no ball sport action, it has all the elements of a trick shot classic. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/14/best-trick-shot-videos/
Massachusetts guard Derrick Gordon came out as the first openly gay male athlete in D1 menâImage: Ty Wright/Associated Press University of Massachusetts Minuteman Derrick Gordon stepped forward as the first openly gay male athlete in Division 1 men’s basketball. The sophomore shooting guard broke the news to his teammates in a meeting on April 2, during which UMass coach Derek Kellogg, who has a wife of nine years, broke the ice by first telling his players, “I wanted to let you all know I’m gay.” Gordon, taking the cue, jumped in: “No, he’s not. But I am.” This is the happiest I have ever been in my 22 Years of living…No more HIDING!!!…Just want to live… http://t.co/rR9KO8nGCu — Derrick Gordon (@flash2gordon) April 9, 2014 “I was thinking about summer plans and just being around my teammates and how it was going to be,” Gordon said in an interview with ESPNW. “I just thought, ‘Why not now? Why not do it in the offseason when it’s the perfect time to let my teammates know and everybody know my sexuality.” Gordon, whose team lost in the first round of March Madness, is reportedly “over the moon,” according to OutSports. “‘Happy’ is not even the word,” Gordon told the organization. “It’s a great feeling. I haven’t felt like this. Ever. It’s a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders. I can finally breathe now and live life happily. I told all the people I need to tell.” window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement(‘script’);js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}; _msla(“//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”twitter_jssdk”); Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/umass-derrick-gordon-gay/
Since NBC still hasn’t fixed its online streaming problems, here are three things worth seeing again from the second weekend of the Olympics. On YouTube The Olympic coverage on BBC is a bit different from ours. There’s no Ryan Seacrest conducting social media segments, no Mary Carillo wandering around the United Kingdom discovering tea and no calming voice of Bob Costas to sooth you into a night’s slumber. Instead, British viewers are treated to what the BBC does best: measured and mature coverage, with very little goofing around. However, a clip of three BBC commentators freaking out over British runner Mo Farrah’s gold medal finish is worth watching. They’re jumping out of the chairs and pumping their fists as Britain brought in six gold medals Saturday — the most in a day since 1908. Now that’s a reason to celebrate. On Twitter Once deemed ineligible to compete for having two prosthetic legs, runner Oscar Pistorius made Olympic history this weekend for being the first amputee to compete. Unfortunately his carbon-fiber legs couldn’t propel him to medal contention as he failed to qualify for the men’s 400 meter final. But many users on Twitter are congratulating him for overcoming the odds against him. Oscar Pistorius you have inspired all….congrats — Riley Pechauer (@RileyPeach3) August 6, 2012 And since its original post, this picture has more than 1,000 retweets. For us Oscar Pistorius took gold for competing at #London2012. If this picture doesn’t inspire you not sure what will. twitter.com/SolihullPolice… — Solihull Police (@SolihullPolice) August 5, 2012 On Tumblr With nearly 4,000 notes, it would’ve been difficult to miss our own Fernando Alfonso III’s fantastic GIF of Serena Williams dancing to celebrate her gold medal win, but here it is again. Williams steamrolled over Russian Maria Sharapova in just 63 minutes to capture the gold medal on Saturday. Following the 6-0, 6-1 knockout, Williams celebrated by dropping like it’s hot and doing the crip walk. One writer called it a “nice homage” to her hometown of Compton, but a Fox Sports writer got his boxers and a bunch and freaked out over the mindless shuffle. For the love of GIF, can’t we all just get along? window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement(‘script’);js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}; _msla(“//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”twitter_jssdk”); Tempo Storm expand into Heroes of the Storm, pick up Symbiote Gaming D’Angelo gets politically righteous with ‘SNL’ performance The most embarrassing questions we’re Googling before the Super Bowl Justin Timberlake confirms baby news in the cutest way possible This article originally published at The Daily Dot here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/06/must-see-olympic-moments/
Let’s cut to the chase here: Standing just five feet five inches, Porter Mayberry is closer in height to Peter Dinklage than to the average NBA star. But that doesn’t stop the 22-year-old from throwing down some pro-quality slam dunks. One-handed, two-handed, forward, backward, off the bounce — Mayberry’s dunks have to be seen to be believed. Luckily the video above, freshly uploaded to YouTube Tuesday afternoon, lets you do just that. And if this doesn’t satisfy your basketball jones, check out our recent post on Lilliputian high school sensation Aquille Carr, whose latest highlight reel has gone viral online with more than 1.5 million views in about a month. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/25/whats-gravity-slam-dunks/
Lionel Messi of Argentina got the Golden Ball for best player of the 2014 World Cup, which ended Sunday in Brazil. Dazzling newcomer James Rodriguez of Colombia won the Golden Boot for most goals. And Manuel Neuer of Germany got the Golden Glove for best goalkeeper (all protestations that it should have been Tim Howard aside). But surely, given how much diving or flopping has become a part of the sport whether we like it or not, there should also be an official “Golden Dive” award handed out after the final whistle? Now there is, kind of, courtesy of a YouTube channel that claims to belong to the Diving Is Cool Society. The group of soccer fans count down their pick of the top 5 dives of Brazil 2014 — starting with the infamous flop by Fred in Brazil’s opening match against Croatia, a dive that won the host country a crucial penalty. Seasoned soccer fans won’t be surprised that the award goes to Dutch star Arjen Robben, for dives too numerous and exquisite to select just one. Robben freely admitted that he dived in the first half of the Netherlands’ game against Mexico (although he didn’t admit the dive that won one more of those crucial penalties in the second half). “One of the moments in the first half was a dive,” he told the Dutch TV station NOS. “Sometimes you get kicked, but that was not the case at that particular moment.” He said he regretted his decision to dive and called it a “silly action.” Arjen Robben, may you treasure this award more than the Netherlands’ third-place medal. World Cup Awards #ThingsTimHowardCouldSave Ned Stark. pic.twitter.com/gk7fV9jmn4 — Arya Stark (@GoT_Arya) July 2, 2014 1. Best Meme: Tim Howard 2. Most delicious player: Giorgio Chiellini Luiz Suarez will agree. 3. Worst/Best hairdo: Rodrigo Palacio Image: Frank Augstein/Associated Press 4. Best goal celebration: Colombia 5. Coach most ready to go clubbing: Joachim Low Image: Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press 6. Tightest jerseys: Uruguay Image: Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press 7. Internet’s most beloved coach: Miguel Herrera After World Cup ending defeat vs Colombia, Japan fans stayed after FT whistle to help clean up the stadium. Respect. pic.twitter.com/pfOXJtnbyJ — Natter Football (@NATTERFOOTBALL) June 25, 2014 8. Cutest fans: Japan for cleaning the stadium after losing Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/07/14/and-the-2014-golden-dive-award-goes-to/
Second-screen apps are all the rage among sports-minded entrepreneurs these days, but the startup TOK.tv thinks it’s set itself apart with an offering that focuses on voice, not text. Its first product, TOK Baseball for iPad, just went live in the App Store. TOK Football is set for release after the World Series concludes, and other sports will follow before the company looks to expand to other markets. Here’s how TOK Baseball [App Store link] works — or rather, how it doesn’t: unlike most second-screen apps for sports, you don’t simply get live updates while exchanging text-based messages with friends or consuming tweeted commentary from the world at large. Instead, TOK Baseball uses second-screen technology for what’s in some ways a more traditional experience. After downloading the free app, you can invite up to three friends to join you in TOK Baseball for a specific game. Once that happens, your iPad will display live-updating stats for whichever game you watch, while enabling you to talk to one another in actual verbal conversation. All current games are displayed on a map (see photo above), so you can all switch over to receive updates and shoot the breeze over a different game, or one person can move back and forth between multiple hangout sessions. A set of built-in sound effects let you augment your trash talk or celebrations. TOK.tv founder Fabrizio Capobianco believes his app solves two key deficiencies for sports fans at home: TV doesn’t provide a constant stream of statistical updates, while texting with different groups of friends who can’t make it to your couch in person lacks the immediacy and excitement of actual conversation. “The idea came from the fact that I watch a lot of baseball alone at home with my dog,” Capobianco says. “It always felt a bit pathetic to be watching baseball alone and screaming ‘homerun!’ by myself while the dog looks at me with a strange face. And I want to scream, ‘homerun!’ and not have to take the time to type it out.” Capobianco is right that a simple, voiced-based approach gives TOK Baseball — and his company’s future offerings — an interesting counterpoint to the second-screen apps fans are used to being pitched. Do you think TOK.tv can catch on with sports fans? Give us your take in the comments, and for a video walk-through check out the clip below. Get Your Tickets to Mashable Media Summit The Mashable Media Summit 2012 will explore the impact that technology is having on media, and how digital media is affecting our lives and changing the world. This one-day conference will bring together the brightest minds in media, including content creators, technology leaders, entrepreneurs, social media executives and journalists. Date: Friday, Nov. 2, 2012 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Location: The TimesCenter, 242 West 41st Street, New York, NY 10036 Tickets: Purchase early bird tickets on Eventbrite. A Look Back at Last Year’s Mashable Media Summit Mashable Media Summit 2011 Media Summit 2011 The Mashable […]
The college basketball season officially got underway this weekend with the start of fall practice, and University of Florida opponents should be very, very, afraid. The reason? Six-foot-nine, 249-lb. Patric Young, who spent the offseason doing the most hardcore workouts we’ve ever seen from a basketball player. As seen in the video above, those workouts included flipping giant tires, using rope to pull small cars while seated on the ground and pushing pickup trucks around campus with nothing but his bare hands. Young gave fans a look at his grueling 3-minute routine by using Twitter to share the above video during the offseason. The clip has bubbled up again on the social web over the past few days thanks to a mention in an SI.com pre-season power ranking, and with the start of college hoops season, it only seemed right share this with the non-sports world as well. Check it out above and let us know what you think in the comments. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/15/college-basketball-players-insane-workout-will-make-you-feel-small-video/
If you’re going to get thrown off the field, you might as well go in style, right? This pants-less goal celebration definitely qualifies. It comes courtesy of Mario Djurovski, a Macedonian midfielder for Thai soccer club Muangthong United. After a sweet score, he drops trou, puts his shorts on top of his head and motions strangely toward the stands. The referee, as you’ll see, is not impressed, and hits Djurovski with a red card. The clip created a fair amount of befuddled buzz on the sports Internet this week, so check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments. BONUS: 25 of YouTube’s Funniest Sports Fails Sports Fails 1. Golf Cart Fail This runaway vehicle wreaked minor on-field havoc following a high school football championship in Texas last December. But a heroic bystander hopped aboard and put on the brakes. No casualties occurred, and the clip immediately became Internet legend. 2. Penalty Kick Fail Watch out for the ricochet, goalie! This kid gets it in the right in the chops. 3. Mascot on Rollerblades Fail What happens when you put an inflatable dinosaur on rollerblades and ask it to skate down a flight of stairs? Amazingness, that’s what. 4. Flopping Fail In sports, to “flop” is to exaggerate the force of contact in hopes of drawing a favorable call from officials. But you’ve got to time it much, much better than this guy does. 5. Hockey Celebration Fail Apparently, if you hug a member of the opposite team after scoring a goal in hockey, you will get punched in the face. 6. Innocent Bystander Fail This kid is just in the wrong place at the wrong time…to the benefit of the rest of us. 7. Representing Your School Fail College football mascots are supposed to represent their schools in a fun, positive light — which doesn’t typically include picking fights. Here, the University of Oregon’s duck slams the University of Houston’s cougar. Bonus points for the sick elbow drop, though. 8. Weightlifting Fail Not saying we could successfully lift 432 pounds above our heads, but dang, that looks painful. German weightlifter Matthias Steiner dropped this massive barbell on his neck during the London Olympics this summer, but escaped serious injury. 9. Trampoline Dunk Fail Sometimes, when you fail, you actually win. 10. Hurdling Fail Why jump over hurdles when you could just RUN STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM? File under: Never, Ever Gets Old. 11. Paying Attention Fail After what could best be described as an “optimistic” shot attempt in a game last season, NBA center JaVale McGee showed some nice hustle getting back on defense. Only problem? His team still had the ball. 12. Judgment Fail But that wasn’t McGee’s only legendary moment. Here, he shows why it’s not a good idea to try dunking from the free throw line mid-game. 13. Olympic Promo Fail For some reason, London’s Olympic promotions this summer involved hanging Mayor Boris Johnson on a zipline while waving a pair […]
