NBA franchises win Twitter again: Here's the best of #NBAMovies

They hit us with #NBAMusicians, then #NBASitcoms, followed by #NBASuperheroes, so it was only logical that #NBAMovies would be next in line for this late night hashtag game between the official Twitter feed of various NBA teams. And this time, they’ve really stepped their game up, with every pun coming with a photoshopped movie poster.

And to think, all of this started organically, by a man who was bored in Phoenix one night in July.

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“I was bored at home,” Greg Esposito explained. “I saw a few fans were using [NBA-related joke hashtags], so I decided to do a handful.”

The Twitter account through which Esposito would tweet these jokes was far from an ordinary account, however. He’s the digital manager of the Phoenix Suns, and responsible for the team’s official Twitter account. In fact, Esposito is the first full-time social media person in the league.

So, Esposito sent various #NBAMusician tweets. A half dozen NBA teams responded with their own. Fans chimed in. Eventually, the hashtag became a trending topic in the United States on the quiet early morning of July 23.

The next evening, Esposito, again through the Suns’ Twitter handle, suggested to other NBA teams that they try #NBASitcoms.

“It just took off … an hour later we had made more bad puns than a Carrot Top show, and the hashtag was trending not just in the US, but worldwide.”

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Esposito says most of the funny interactions between NBA team Twitter accounts this summer -- including, most memorably, this Fresh Prince one -- are unplanned and happen organically.

And while he acknowledges “being fun but not silly” is a fine line to walk, as a lifelong Suns fan, Esposito is confident he knows when to joke and when to tweet more serious, newsy information.

“You have to space out the outlandish with the quality basketball coverage and the serious things,” he said.

Tonight, apparently, was time for the outlandish.

Even the folks at TNT got into the action:

And what do you know, #NBAMovies became a trending topic worldwide.