At the surface level, there's very little in common between former NBA center Roy Hibbert and late indie darling Elliott Smith.
Hibbert was the mid-2010s king of verticality(opens in a new tab), essentially a tall dude who prevented easy shots at the hoop. He went from star to outcast in about three years, played off the NBA court by smaller players and better shooting across the league. Smith, meanwhile, is your favorite songwriter's favorite songwriter (especially if you love Phoebe Bridgers(opens in a new tab)). He wrote moving, terribly sad indie music(opens in a new tab) before dying young some two decades ago.
So, yes, wildly different life stories. And yet, on TikTok, you can find a post setting Hibbert's career highlights to Smith's seminal song "Between the Bars(opens in a new tab)." Even more surprising...it works! Hibbert's ho-hum, workmanlike style — a sizzle reel of blocks, rebounds, and solid defense — pairs nicely with the melancholy of Smith's song. It gives emotion to a player who showed up to do his job and did it well before the league passed him by.
When I first saw the post, my English major brain parsed through the lyrics, wondering why it worked. Ah yes, I thought, "People you've been before / That you don't want around anymore / That push and shove and won't bend to your will." Those lyrics match perfectly with Hibbert's inauspicious exit from the NBA, I convinced myself.
Then I talked to the creator of the TikTok. And I was, perhaps, overthinking things.
"A lot of times, I'll think of a player and be like, 'Oh, this is great,'" said Alex Eastland, an 18-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Georgia who created the @indienba account(opens in a new tab) that did the Hibbert edit. "I'll go into iMovie I'll cut up some his highlights. Then I'll look at my Spotify, think of a song, and be like, 'Oh, that would be funny.' There's not much of like a science to it."
Basically, Eastland did it for a laugh. Though, he admits the Hibbert x Smith collaboration was his favorite edit he's made thus far. And other people like his work, too.
Eastland has racked up nearly 10,000 followers for the NBA x Indie account, and his videos regularly get tens of thousands of views. Eastland, however, didn't originate the idea and is far from the only person creating these kinds of edits. He said he saw a Kawhi Leonard x Beabadoobee edit(opens in a new tab) and was inspired to start making his own. Look around and you'll see lots of accounts making edits like Dwyane Wade x Phoebe Bridgers(opens in a new tab), Rudy Gay x Cranberries(opens in a new tab), and Al Jefferson x Boygenius(opens in a new tab). Hell, there's even Rodney Hood x Car Seat Headrest(opens in a new tab). It's all quite obscure and wonderful.
It struck a chord with me because it was so damn specific. I love the NBA and I love indie music, and they weirdly work well together. Eastland was somewhat taken aback to see how popular these videos have become on a certain corner of TikTok.
"I've been surprised [by] how big of a following it's gotten," Eastland said. "You know, I've got friends that know who Modern Baseball are. And I've got friends who know who OJ Mayo is. But, like, I don't really have any friends who know who both are. So, I've been very surprised to see the amount of people who relate to both sides of it."
It's more proof the the TikTok algorithm will find exactly what you're interested in. I saw these videos and immediately cracked up — who in their right mind would make these, and who would watch them? And then I kept watching them.
"There's an exclusiveness to it," Eastland pointed out. "If you're watching and you're like, 'Oh, I know who this random 2012 NBA player that no one's talked about in eight years is. And I know this kind of obscure Modern Baseball song.' You're almost like, 'Oh my God, I have to like this.'"
In some ways, lots of these NBA x Indie TikToks are the anti-hype video that typically dominates online basketball spaces. That's what makes it funny, entertaining, and hard to turn off. It's unexpected.
"It's self aware how not-of-a-highlight-tape it is," Eastland said. "It's like flipping the highlight tape on its head. Instead of having flashy plays and hype music, you have really average plays with really slow music."
There are a number of people in this world who like indie music and the NBA. As someone who shares those interests online, especially on Twitter, I can say it's not the most specific intersection ever. To put it bluntly, there are hipstery basketball fans and music fans alike. Some of the younger NBA sportswriters themselves often post(opens in a new tab) about(opens in a new tab) these sorts of bands.
What's interesting is the folks who stumble into the world of indie NBA edits on TikTok. They have a real how the hell did I get here moment. But there is a strange beauty in these edits, no matter who you are. Some magical mix of relatively boring highlights, sad music, and surprise really wrings out the emotion. It's oddly...beautiful...to see an NBA role player do their thing to heartfelt music. Yes, I get how strange that sounds.
"These videos make me so emotional about NBA players, like they dedicate their lives to this and a majority don't get the recognition they deserve," read a comment on the Hibbert x Smith video.
All it took was TikTok and iMovie to finally get their due.
