The NBA fans of Reddit are a lighthearted bunch. Extremely internet meme-dom peppers the typical talk of games and trades and stats. But the r/NBA subreddit recently took the discussion in a surprising — and delightful — direction, concerning pop star, queer icon, and internet queen Carly Rae Jepsen.

On Jan. 30, Reddit user u/NAD_83 shared the news that Jepsen would be singing the Canadian National Anthem at the NBA All Star game, which takes place this weekend, on Feb. 17. The news itself is not that surprising: Jepsen, who is Canadian, rose to fame after placing third on Canadian Idol in 2007.

The post — a simple, seemingly inconsequential news item posted to a sports-focused subreddit — took off. It has 8.2 thousand upvotes, which easily makes it a top post in the subreddit; the current top posts have 12.5, nine, and seven thousand upvotes, respectively, and they're all player news and league jokes. The CRJ post is, to put it conservatively, a departure from the usual r/NBA fare.

What's more, the top comment, from Reddit user u/xiamhunterx, reads "legends only." Correctly stating that CRJ is, unequivocally, a legend. It has 498 points.

"Nice to see that r/nba is accepting absolutely no CRJ slander whatsoever in here as it should be," reads the top response to the comment, from u/thedude596.

Lest you think these are derisive or ironic comments, read on in the thread. Hundreds of posts follow, defending CRJ as an underrated pop star, sharing what her music means to the posters, and delighting in the serendipity of discovering fellow CRJ fans in r/NBA, of all places.

"You guys know too much about her....... but then again, so do I," u/heyyitsmike wrote. "Fuck it, embrace our love for Carly Rae!"

The internet reignited with CRJ love recently after she released the single "Party for One" in November 2018. The ebullient pop song, as well as her 2017 single "Cut to the Feeling," both became touch points for reconsidering her legacy in the wake of her commercially unsuccessful (and some argue criminally underrated) 2015 album Emotion. The internet has endeavored to redefine her, from the artist behind that one song, "Call Me Maybe," to a singular talent, capable of capturing a mood and spirit with the best of them — perhaps too long ignored as an artist because of the unrestrained joy of her music.

This is something her fans have been preaching since her 2015 album Emotion, and an argument that r/NBA takes up, too.

"Seriously, it's just really great, upbeat, non-cynical pop music," writes u/snowcone_wars. "It really is great, and I'll shill it all day long I don't care."

"Straight up her Emotion album is one of the most underrated albums of all time," said u/just_say_maybe.

CRJ has also become one of the vaunted gay icons for the LGBT community. Think pieces abound about just what it is about her music that makes the gay community identify with her. Just Wednesday, CRJ previewed a new song, "Now That I Found You," in a teaser trailer for Netflix's Queer Eye.

WE'RE BAAACK HENNYS! Get ready to 💗 L<3VE YOURSELF! 💗 Queer Eye 3 launches March 15. HUGE thanks to @carlyraejepsen for this exclusive preview of her *NEW BOP*, "Now That I Found You.” 😘 pic.twitter.com/Dmj3ygXnhV — Queer Eye (@QueerEye) February 13, 2019

Because conversation in r/NBA usually centers around, well, basketball, the outpouring of CRJ love came as a welcome surprise to many r/NBA posters.

"Didn't realize how many CRJ stans there were in r/nba , but I fucks with it," wrote u/mrbroseph22 — to which u/ohmeohmy78 replied "same, this is an amazing revelation.

"Things I wasn't expecting to happen today: 1 - read 500 fanboy comments about Carly Rae Jepsen on /r/nba ," wrote u/goingtoriseup.

"Man I was expecting a shit show," wrote u/hugyamother. "This was surprisingly wholesome. I like how r/nba can come together for anything but actual basketball lmfao."

Some hypothesized that the CRJ fandom came from r/popheads "leaking" into r/NBA — but others concluded that some in the two user groups were one in the same. Many of the posters writing about CRJ have flair indicating their NBA team allegiance next to their usernames, and appear to be frequent r/NBA contributors. The fandom appears legit.

"Smh everyone sleeping on my girl CRJ. She's dope af. Just listen to either of her Emotion albums to see that," wrote u/Rudee43 . To which u/okaiokaiokaiokaiokai replied "Come to r/popheads we're all sluts 4 Jesus Carly."

The thread didn't just preach the CRJ gospel — it spread it. Many posters shared that the thread inspired them to give CRJ a listen, and came away impressed.

"Thanks to r/NBA I'm currently bopping to Emotion and fucking feeling it," u/LePatagonia wrote.

"I just went through all of Emotion because of all these comments and my goodness its such a good pop album," u/CSkorm wrote. "Alot of gym tracks on here, and the production is so on point; tons of replay value from me. THANK YOU CARLY BAE JEPSEN, kill it at the ASG <3."

If the r/NBA CRJ thread proves anything, it's that CRJ is a pop star for anybody who just loves to feel — which is to say, everybody. NBA fans most definitely included. It just turned out that Reddit was the perfect place to express that love. r/NBA <3 CRJ, indeed.