The real story behind this viral NBA video
When NBA stars Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade were filmed on the Chicago Bulls bench Monday night, a Viral Moment™️ occurred.
Alas, the apparent real story is not as juicy as the meme (because it never is). That's why, like the RA in your freshman-year dorm, we're here to launch a full investigation and kill all the fun.
Our story begins with Butler and Wade on the Bulls bench during Chicago's Monday night win over the Detroit Pistons. Television cameras caught Butler gesturing to Wade while talking to someone off-screen and across the court. Here's that video, along with the hit Vine and Twitter posts it spawned.
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In less than 24 hours, the post was retweeted more than 20,000 times and viewed more than 4.5 million times on Vine. For good reason -- it's a funny and relatable joke! Who among us has not tried to hook our boy up at the club? And, as we all know, the two keys to a viral internet post are humor and relatability. (We'll let the "your" vs. "you're" typo slide.)
Also adding to the intrigue was that the joke, in reality, wasn't an entirely implausible scenario. We've seen before that NBA stars sometimes seek to arrange hook-ups with fans in ways you might not expect.
Wade's wife, the actress Gabrielle Union, entered our story later Monday night. She said in a Twitter post that Butler had gotten himself crossed "off the BBQ list" for ostensibly playing wingman. Oh, drama!
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But what really happened? Butler shed light on the true story via Instagram after the video took off.
Now let us translate that caption for you.
In hoop-speak, an "iso" is when one player is isolated against his defender in hopes of getting an easy bucket. As for the @johnson_c5 mentioned by Butler?
He's Chris Johnson, a personal player-development coach who works with Butler and other NBA pros. Johnson did an interview with SI.com in September.
So, to recap: Butler wasn't trying to hook Wade up with an amorous fan; he was communicating with a personal coach about basketball strategy.
Anyway, sorry to spoil all the fun. But please -- keep making internet jokes! Internet jokes are good and we want them to continue.
Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
