Team-based sports don’t have a singular rallying cry (not counting Nike slogans), but perhaps it’s time they adopted one from the wise words of Celine Dion. Really, is there any better slogan than “You’re here, there’s nothing I fear” for a group of hardworking athletes? Titanic Hoops, as spotted by Select All, is a Twitter account that combines various sports clips with Titanic’s iconic theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” like so.
I reached out to the creator of Titanic Hoops, a 28-year-old working in sports media who declined to self-identify due to employer-related concerns. It was a combined love of disaster romance film Titanic and basketball, they said, that sparked the account’s creation. “I guess the easiest way to describe myself is a big time basketball fan that also respects the brilliance of Titanic and Celine Dion,” they told The Verge. “…I think this is a great way to bring basketball fans to Titanic and vice versa. It’s truly the perfect match.”
Titanic Hoops culls clips from its creator’s knowledge of basketball and a call from fans. Followers will DM or email the account, its creator told me, which “makes it much more interactive and it’s more fun than me cherry picking my favorite moments.” From start to finish, Titanic Hoops takes about 5–10 minutes to create a single clip. The Titanic Hoops creator says this is their only account of this nature, but that the sport works especially well because “the crescendo moment is very apparent in basketball.”
“There is no song that captures the drama of basketball better than ‘My Heart Will Go On,’” the creator says. “Also, it’s one of those rare songs where even if you’ve never watched Titanic, you have a pretty good understanding what the song is about. No explanation is required. Everyone can consume the joke and get it immediately.”
The opposite rings true for me as well. I have no great familiarity with sports, but endless affection for Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio just trying to make love work in this crazy, shipwreck of a world. And, clearly, the gag works beyond just basketball.
Celine Dion: the great uniter of all sports and all peoples.
Update January 17th, 3:01PM ET: Megan did not include what is obviously the best example of this meme, which is Packers’ kicker Mason Crosby hitting a last-minute 51-yard field goal to beat the Cowboys in the playoffs. I have corrected this oversight below. —Nilay Patel
