The budding friendship between Detroit Pistons Twitter and Johnny Kane

Between wandering the baselines at Little Caesars Arena, or doing postgame interviews, Johnny Kane has become an active member of Detroit Pistons Twitter.

The basketball offseason is long. It is especially long for a team that fails to make the playoffs, or, in the case of the 2018-19 Detroit Pistons, is swept out in the first round.

While the offseason gives players time for rest and relaxation, not everyone involved with the team is afforded the luxury of a summer leisure.

This is obvious.

Still, when I tune in to a Detroit Tigers game on a random Sunday in mid-July and see the slick hair and snazzy suite of Johnny Kane reporting from the outfield stands of Comerica Park, I can’t help but feel betrayed. Why does he know so much about the Tigers? Why is he at their place? Is this how he spends his summers?

This is irrational.

Johnny Kane is not a Detroit Pistons employee. He works for Fox Sports Detroit, who, aside from broadcasting Pistons and Detroit Red Wings games, is the primary broadcaster of the Tigers.

And, admittedly, I am not a baseball fan. The games are long, slow, and the Tigers roster has changed so much since I last paid attention that I was surprised when I noticed Miguel Cabrera is still around.

Maybe if I liked baseball more, if I paid more attention, I wouldn’t find Johnny Kane at Comerica Park so heartbreakingly foreign.

But the baseball season is long over and a new season is still a ways off. Right now, Detroit is engulfed by the overlapped seasons of basketball, hockey, and for the few still clinging to hope, football.

This means, Johnny Kane is back on the sidelines of Little Caesars Arena and his attention is back to basketball and the Pistons. Nowhere does this show more than on Twitter.

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There’s something you should know about me: I’m new to Twitter. I joined earlier this year but wasn’t active until around August when I began writing for Piston Powered. It was then that I became aware of the Pistons Twitter community, made up of amateur and professional sportswriters, bloggers, fans, and (to my surprise) Johnny Kane.

Kane is an active Twitter user. He live-Tweets Pistons (and Tigers) games, he shares breaking sports news – especially if it pertains to Detroit or the state of Michigan – he posts motivational quotes, and he cracks the more-than-occasional joke.

But recently Kane has embraced the Pistons Twitter community.

Before the Pistons game against the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 29, Kane took a break from his pre-game duties and made an appearance at the Pistons Twitter meet-up organized by Piston Powered writer Jordan Lederman (Twitter user @PistonsThoughts).

Kane shared a picture of the meet-up to Twitter, captioning it: “Let’s get it fam!” Clearly, for Kane, this relationship runs deeper than a mutual interest in Detroit Basketball.

But the relationship between Pistons Twitter and Johnny Kane goes both ways.

Following a recent and unsuspecting attack from Fox Sports Detroit colleague Mickey York, where York cautioned Pistons Twitter of Johnny Kane’s “evil ways,” Pistons Twitter came to Kane’s rescue by bombarding York with Camby gifs. In the end, the attack was revealed to be all in good fun, but Kane seemed to appreciate the support nonetheless.

Like any budding relationship, the early days are uncertain: Was this just a late-autumn fling? I’m into this, but are you? Where do we go from here? The holidays are coming up, but are we giving gifts yet?

Following the overlapped fame of Piston Powered contributor Eli Bashi’s tweet landing on NBA on TNT and the infamy of Forbes Piston beat writer Duncan Smith accidentally summoning Ted Cruz and putting the Baby Yoda meme at risk, Johnny Kane was one of the first to share in the excitement of such a memorable day for Pistons Twitter.

Perhaps that’s a sign of clarity through the bashful uncertainty of a new friendship. Bashi’s tweet is the most national attention the Pistons may have all season, Baby Yoda might just be too cute and relatable to die, and Pistons Twitter’s relationship with Johnny Kane appears only to be growing.