Roy Hibbert confesses his love for old AOL chat rooms
By JOHN DORN
Anyone who grew up with the Internet in the 1990s is surely familiar with AOL's old instant-messaging chat rooms. They provided a great chance to chop it up with fellow Internet users about any given topic, well before social media rose to prominence. For that generation, those rooms housed a great deal of unforgettable banter.
Just ask Roy Hibbert.
Without getting into great detail, the Indiana Pacers center confessed his love for the early Internet goldmines.
Shout out to @AOL for those chat rooms back in the late '90s. Learned a lot in them things.
— Roy Hibbert (@Roy_Meets_World) June 9, 2015
This isn't the first time Hibbert has gone on the record speaking fondly about his chat room activity. Here's a bit from a 2012 Mashable interview, discussing his Internet prominence:
So there's that video, and you're possibly the best NBA player on Twitter. I'm just gonna come out and ask: How are you so good at the Internet? Did you spend a lot of time online as a kid?
Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. I used to be in AOL chat rooms a lot causing trouble back when you had dial-up modems. I've always liked to be social in a smart way. Basketball comes first to me but I also pride myself on being an approachable person online and offline, talking to people when I walk through the mall and stuff like that. I just tweet a lot of stuff I think is funny, whatever comes to mind. I think social media can be used to grow your brand, but it also lets people know what kind of person you are.
Hibbert's story is probably one that most Americans his age can relate to. AOL chat rooms, as they existed then, are long gone. But in a time when the Internet was just a baby, that space acted as the ultimate learning experience. Even for future pro athletes.
Appreciate the shoutout, Roy. You're welcome here any time.
More on AOL.com:
Roy Hibbert: I'm Becoming a Gaming Legend
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