Fans, Athletes, and Twitter: Analyzing Twitter for (Para) Social Relationship Building

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On October 31, 2011, NBA Superstar Kevin Durant tweeted the following: “This lockout is really boring … anybody playing fl ag football in Okc ... I need to run around or something!” (Boren, 2011, para. 2). It didn’t take long for fans to respond to Durant’s call for something to do. According to a report by the Washington Post, an Oklahoma State University student, George Overbey, tweeted to Durant that there was an intramural fl ag football game that evening in Stillwater, and Durant was welcome to join the Sigma Nu fraternity team (Boren, 2011). Durant obliged and joined the students for the intramural flag football game, and tweeted the next day: “I had soooo much fun at Oklahoma st playing flag football! Shoutout my new buddy @groverby for inviting me! I threw 4 tds and had 3 ints!!” (Boren, 2011, para. 6).