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Timeless Sports founder explains how he serves up nostalgia daily

Digital sports media is a competitive field. Countless social media pages and podcasts come about each year to try and get a taste of fame.

They will do anything to gain clout, whether they have to jump on a bandwagon, expose the negatives in athletes, or even steal another platform’s idea.

Timeless Sports does it differently.

The sports content page relies on “insightful,” “eternal,” and “timeless” content according to its Instagram bio. Its material revolves around posting throwback images of athletes in-game, with their families, or enjoying the many aspects of life.

 

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On this date in 2009, Kobe and Carmelo put on a clinic in game 1 of the WCF. Melo has 39. Kobe had 40. 🍿

A post shared by Throwback Sports Content (@timelesssports) on May 19, 2020 at 6:53am PDT

I had the opportunity to speak with Fabien Gashi, the man behind the magic. Our conversation covered his reasons for starting the page, his choice to focus on throwback content, and the mission of his page to present a level of respect and dignity to the sports world.

Timeless Sports is a precise, distinguished sports content page that shines a positive light on athletes’ lives. The decision to positively represent athletes is crucial and unique and is something the sports world needs more consistently.

 

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‪(2007) Easy. Money. Sniper. 🎯 ‬Best scorer in the league?

A post shared by Throwback Sports Content (@timelesssports) on Apr 26, 2019 at 9:37pm PDT


Gashi’s beginnings

Gashi grew up playing sports, participating in basketball and baseball throughout high school. Being around the sport as a child made him appreciate the game itself.

He graduated from Seton Hall University in 2017, and still plays basketball for fun regularly.

Timeless Sports started as an Instagram-only page in September of 2015, from Gashi’s dorm room. He first conceptualized it as a passion project, a place that he could post material that he cared about.

“Basketball, throwbacks, sports, hip-hop are stuff I’ve always loved,” Gashi told me. “It was pretty much a way to get that as an outlet.”


Capturing an identity

The name “Timeless Sports” was selected because it was simply available, and it also seemed like something that could turn into a brand. It gave him an opportunity to turn his content into a brand, instead of simply being a throwback sports page.

Gashi started posting in September of 2015 and has not missed a single day since. Consistency is something that has always been important to him, and delivering content that one can not find anywhere else is another one of his mantras.

“I’ve always loved the late 90s, mid 90s, early 2000s era of everything,” said Gashi.

“It was an easy way for me to just put that out there on social media, instead of trying to be a media outlet with like, ‘what’s going on today.’”

 

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‪(1997) 12-year-old Chris Paul with Tim Duncan. 🎞‬

A post shared by Throwback Sports Content (@timelesssports) on Nov 7, 2019 at 8:08pm PST


Importance of authenticity

In terms of setting himself apart from other sports outlets, Gashi takes pride in the content that he posts. He upholds the integrity of his brand as one of his most important values, constantly focusing on putting athletes in a positive light.

“I think a lot of brands or sports pages compromise integrity on social media,” Gashi said.

“Again, I’m not one for obviously controversial takes or clickbait reactions. The way I look at it is, if I wouldn’t say a caption to an athlete’s face, I won’t post it on social media.”

Every single day, there are countless people trying to tear athletes down. This ranges from ignorant and rascally fans, tabloids, and platforms trying to gain a desperate drop of clout. These people identify a single, minuscule flaw in an athlete’s life, and they attack it.

It is something that these people thrive on, not necessarily with malicious intentions, but with the drive to gain a sense of power over these famous athletes.

This is the unfortunate truth of the sports world. For every genuine and positive platform, there are ten alternatives that will attempt to break them.
It is rare to come across a humble, integrity-driven outlet that wants the best for athletes.

Timeless Sports is committed to representing athletes in a different way, one that includes unity, appreciation, and respect for the good things that athletes do with their lives.

“I know that I can say something; I can easily get a reaction out of people,” Gashi said. “I don’t want that to be my lane of how I increase engagement. I want to just [have] genuine love for a play or moment that happened in the past.”


Gaining a following

The page recently crossed 500k followers on Instagram and is closing in on 200k Twitter followers. Several prestigious, real-deal athletes follow the pages, including LeBron James, Saquon Barkley, and Baltimore Ravens legend Ed Reed.

Gashi isn’t doing jumping-jacks about his fame, though. He said:

“The number doesn’t really mean much to me honestly, I think it’s cool. But the best part of it is I’m growing an audience with followers that I care about, because I post content I care about.”

LeBron James followed him on Twitter sometime in 2017, one of Gashi’s most memorable moments. Having these superstars doesn’t necessarily change the way he posts, however.

“I don’t think it changes the way I put it out, but to be honest, it does motivate me to put out high-quality stuff.”

Gashi frequently mentioned Jay-Z, his favorite rapper. He told me about how he can post a reference from a song, and there are people in the comments who will just continue with the lyrics. It is the coolest thing for him to feel that others genuinely love the things he cares about.


Eyeing the future

What are the next sports for Gashi? He wants to continue to grow the page itself, and branch out just as a normal media outlet would.

“I think now that I have a pretty big, nice audience, it allows me the opportunity to branch out in a way that I would like, and I think creating original content is definitely one of the routes. I think podcasting might be the next step early on in that process.”

For those just starting out, Gashi offered his piece of advice:

“Stay consistent. I think things are going to take longer than you expect. But if you stay consistent, and you genuinely enjoy what you’re doing, you’re not even gonna realize it. And have actual meaning or value behind what you believe in and don’t just post up. Don’t just put stuff out there to get a reaction post. Put stuff out there because you genuinely enjoy what you’re putting out there.”

 

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Kobe forever. 💜

A post shared by Throwback Sports Content (@timelesssports) on Jan 26, 2020 at 12:05pm PST

It is the positive representation of athletes Timeless Sports provides that keeps the community flowing in the proper direction. The media industry has a massive level of power, and it can crush those with platforms if it is used improperly.

Timeless Sports is making sure to not only keep a productive light on athletes but to preserve and cherish their memories in an amazing landscape.

Why did LeBron congratulate himself for a thing he hasn’t done yet? An investigation

LeBron James, who is 7 points shy of joining the rarified air of 30,000 points in his NBA career, took some time out of his busy schedule to issue a… congratulations to himself on the achievement, which he has not yet reached.

Bron went on Instagram this morning to pen a long congrats to the younger version of himself.

Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you’ll reach! Only a handful has reach/seen it too and while I know it’s never been a goal of yours from the beginning try(please try) to take a moment for yourself on how you’ve done it! The House you’re about to be apart of has only 6 seats in it(as of now) but 1 more will be added and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside. There’s so many people to thank who has help this even become possible(so thank them all) and when u finally get your moment(alone) to yourself smile, look up to the higher skies and say THANK YOU! So with that said, Congrats again Young King ! 1 Love! #striveforgreatness #thekidfromakron

A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on

The Cavs forward wrote:

“Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you’ll reach! Only a handful has reach/seen it too and while I know it’s never been a goal of yours from the beginning try(please try) to take a moment for yourself on how you’ve done it! The House you’re about to be apart of has only 6 seats in it(as of now) but 1 more will be added and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside. There’s so many people to thank who has help this even become possible(so thank them all) and when u finally get your moment(alone) to yourself smile, look up to the higher skies and say THANK YOU! So with that said, Congrats again Young King ! 1 Love! #striveforgreatness #thekidfromakron”

There’s some grammatical errors here (Bron, hit me up if you need a copy editor), but LeBron also seems to have made a mistake in claiming that there are “only 6 seats” in the 30k point club.

From my exhaustive research (googling how many players have 30,000 points), it appears that seven players (Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Dirk Nowitzki, and Julius Irving) have reached the 30,000 point mark.

Regardless, it’s hilarious that LeBron hasn’t actually achieved the thing that he’s congratulating himself for here, but the odds are certainly with him. One of the greatest aspects of LeBron’s career is his ridiculous consistency. ESPN broke down the likeliness of LeBron scoring 7 points tonight:

“The last time James failed to score seven points in a regular-season game was Dec. 29, 2004, during his second season in the league. He’s scored at least 10 in 836 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in NBA history. He’s averaging 26.8 points per game.”

Ok so LeBron is certainly going to get to 30k points tonight.

He’s actually done a pretty good job of getting out ahead of all the other congratulations. By congratulating himself before he actually gets the thing, he’s assured that he’ll be the first to do so. That’s just PR 101 right there. Take notes.

The Cavs largely suck right now, so maybe LeBron is just shading the rest of his normal ass, non-30k-point-having teammates.

The LeBron social media machine is a powerful and complex being. We have only begun to understand its intricacies.

Nicki Minaj sexualizes Pocahontas in IG post, which isn’t a great look

Last week, Paper magazine released photos of the Nicki Minaj “Minaj A Trois” shoot- and boy were they hot.

Nicki broke the internet much like Kim Kardashian did in 2014. The photoshoot made headlines for a couple of days, with Nicki sharing pictures on her Instagram.

When fans started drawing their renditions of the pictures, Nicki posted that, too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbnIKl2BBps/?taken-by=nickiminaj

“Which one should get hung up in my Barbie room? I’m torn between the bad bunnies, the horses & Pocahontas,” reads the caption.

This sparked an onslaught of community response, calling Nicki out for disrespecting Native Americans.

https://twitter.com/societyhs/status/931939884507582465

https://twitter.com/JordanG52697209/status/931649399494774785

https://twitter.com/lilnativeboy/status/931728613325418496

Bitch Media has now launched a platform against Nicki’s actions. Their top argument that Nicki was the only one to consent to such a photoshoot. “Millions” of Native American girls and women did not ask for Pocahontas to be represented in such a way.

“These sexualized representations are not benign: We cannot end violence against Native women and girls if it’s continually normalized. To ignore sexual violence against Native women is to ignore Native women, and if Native women are not seen as fully, beautifully human, we will continue to be victimized and rendered invisible.”

For others, it’s Nicki’s participation in the hypersexual culture that still exists, with outlets like Wear Your Voice calling her out for doing the photoshoot in the first place.

“If we continue to ignore the voices of our fellow marginalized peoples, we have no hope of moving towards an inclusive and equitable future for all of us. Nicki needs to be held accountable for her mistake, as all of us should be held accountable when we’re being problematic.”

Nicki’s been the face for female empowerment before. If that is a title she wants to keep, then it’s best she actually stop and listen to what the community is telling her.

An apology seems to be what the Native American community is looking for. Let’s see if it’ll happen.

Instagram may be dubbing the 3×3 grid for 4×4 and now everyone’s tight

Is Instagram trying to fuck up their users’ aesthetic? A new test update from the photo platform last week, which showed they are changing the grid from 3×3 to 4×4, just might.

Instagram, you better stop playing games. We’ve built out our profiles for seven years on a 3×3 grid. Now you want to just crush the photographic creativity all of us have worked so hard to maintain? We think not.

The test came in lieu of the iPhones 8 and X debuts. Instagram hasn’t said that the update is permanent but that it was just some sort of sick, twisted, and demented experiment.

Fader guessed, “Following the announcement of the new, even bigger iPhone, the app might simply be trying to adapt to bigger screens”

First of all, FOH! Second of all, we are all unhinged AF. Third of all, Instagram please don’t change your layout.

All of the artists out there better get ready for their profiles to look like a fucked up sliding puzzle.

Users who just figured out how to make three, six, or nine images into one are the sickest. Say goodbye to your creative promotions.

https://twitter.com/ItsMisterJadhav/status/908213935311949825

I guess this is what happens when Instagram is life. Peep what Insta user Palash Prabhaker, told The Ringer,

“It’s been over a year that I’ve been formatting my Instagram in a multiple of three posts. I play with the overall look of my profile. I never had a design planned for my Instagram….”

Prabhaker continued to express his frustration,

“Messing with the grid view would mean that I will have to curate my Instagram again from the start with a constant fear of Instagram changing the layout again.”

Better start getting used to the shook life Palash. Instagram can do whatever they want.

They all know we’re still going to fuck with the app even if they do decide to go through with the update.

https://twitter.com/bschindy/status/910509504458104833

Instagram is too fire.