Rather than just dishing assists or dunks, NBA players are dishing basketball rumors these days thanks to the new technology of the Twitter website. The players and other NBA insiders that use the service to pump out texting size blurbs known as tweets have many Twitter friends, fans and others who follow their daily exploits. It has become so popular with some players that they have had to crack down on players’ use of it.
Working at a company that produces electronic basketball scoreboards, Electro-Mech employees are fans (some fanatics) of a variety of team sports, with basketball being just one example. We make sure follow all the latest basketball news and trends, especially in this case. It is our passion and pleasure to share our knowledge and expertise with you on our favorite sports. Just read on to see what we mean!
Charlie Villanueva uses the popular Twitter service like many other stars to update his fans on exciting and not-so-exciting events of his day. But where he crossed the line for this coach an owners was when he sent a Twitter out to the fans during an NBA game. Charlie was a 7th draft pick back in the 2005 draft and for the past year and a half he has dominated the Twitter website with his up-to-the-minute posts. During that time he has posted 977 times and has amassed 23,889 followers, including media like CNN other NBA stars like Kevin Love, TV stars like Jimmy Fallon and regular people. The popular Twitter that was read around the world was on March 15, 2009 when Charlie sent out a message about the game during halftime against the Celtics. That got everyone’s attention, including his coach and the team owner, and suffice it to say that Charlie will have to wait until after the game to tweet from now on.
Shaquille O’Neal is a natural for Twitter since he has always exuded personality and loves to talk. He is a natural entertainer and on the popular Twitter website, he is by far the most popular NBA star. Shaq has many a Twitter friend, totaling 887,000 and growing. The list of celebs is too long to list here but they include rappers 50-cent and P Diddy, Oprah Winfrey, Miley Cyrus and ex-teammate, Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaq frequently tweets with updates of his Phoenix Suns during the season, his newest funny nicknames for himself and his diet tips and failures. Even though Shaq is entertaining, the fans and celebs on Twitter often have conversations of their own, using Shaq’s page as a way to hash through the latest NBA basketball rumors.
The only NBA owner on the popular Twitter site is, of course, none other than the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. Cuban has been so outspoken during his ownership through televisions, emails and his blog that tweeting was a natural step for him. Between his two Twitter names he has about 50,000 people follow his updates for his team, his business insights, and his random rants about the state of the world–all with frequent links back to his blog. Among his followers are Paris Hilton and basketball players Bruce Bowen (whose team just lost to the Mavericks last week) and ZaZa Pachulia (who is still in the playoffs with the Atlanta Hawks).
Other famous Twitters abound throughout the league: Paul Pierce, the Celtics scoring star, has about 250,000 followers. Other notables include Kobe Bryant, Tyson Chandler, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.