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This past Sixers season was exciting because of what is to come. We were able to watch young players develop and enjoy the games without living and dying with every win and loss. Removed from that context, it was a long, arduous season filled with an intentional assault on the beautiful sport of basketball. But, one of the things that helped keep fans in the former mindset was the work done by (@Sixers) on Twitter, Vine, Snapchat, and more.

Complex took a look at the social media teams (or people) of the Nets, Hawks, Sixers, and more, highlighting the great work done by Max Rappaport and Alessandro Gasparro:

Sam Hinkie—your reclusive, analytics-driven general manager—is despised nationally for openly accepting short-term losing (“tanking”) for the chance at long-term success. The worst venom from every Philly fan who still goes to Wawa in an Allen Iverson caricature T-shirt and Eagles pajama pants floods your mentions on a daily basis. Tweeting score updates with “¯\_(ツ)_/¯” probably isn’t going to work for 82 games. What do you do?

“That’s the thing: You have to empathize with your fans to an extent,” says Sixers Social Media Coordinator Alessandro “Sandro” Gasparro. “There’s obviously a certain line you can’t cross, but you have to feel what they feel. You can’t sugarcoat everything.

“The hardest part of the job is tempering our desire to be the voice of our fans and be a little edgy with a voice that is also brand-focused and appropriate,” Rappaport says. “Have there been bumps in the road? Of course. But those are inevitable if you’re trying to straddle that line.”

Communicating with the fanbase is important for any team, especially one asking the fans point blank to just be patient and like … chill man. Luckily for fans (but more so for the front office), Max and Sandro are great at it. Dudes probably deserve a raise. Or maybe they can just teach a class.