nba musings

I already explained what I was willing to part with… This is more than Tony Allen and a bag of pretzels
* I hate you more than ever, Danny Ainge!

Source: http://twitter.com/YahooSportsNBA/status/3237438573

If this happens, then I’m happy for Leon. He deserves a job and I’ll be glad that he has one. I will just never get over the Celtics not offering him at least the minimum like the Cavs are apparently willing to do. It was already bad enough that I had to hate the Cavs a little less because of my love for Delonte… Now they’re going to have Leon too? That makes things so complicated. LeBron is easier to hate than ever and don’t even getting me started on that flopper Varejao. It would have been really great to just be able to wish the entire Cavs team would rot in hell. Kinda like the Yankees. Now, two of my favorite players in the league will be playing for my team’s arch rival.

Crap.

Update: I decided to rip off the band-aid and replace the Powe square on my Twitter background to a Perk square. It was painful, but had to be done.

Related links:

• Yahoo! Sports: Cavs close to signing Powe

Journalism 101
* So, let me get this straight…

1. First, “Big Baby” posts on Twitter about being impatient waiting for his big fat contract to come through.
2. Then, the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy writes a column reporting that Glen Davis is upset with the Celtics based on said Twitter account, without verifying with anyone that it is actually Glen Davis’ real Twitter account.
3. Then, Glen Davis informs Danny Ainge that the Twitter account isn’t his and whoever has been tweeting is in fact, an imposter.
4. Then, the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy writes a column claiming that Glen Davis is claiming that the account on Twitter is actually run by an imposter (insinuating that maybe Davis is just saying that it’s not his.)

You know, as opposed to admitting that he wrote a column without basic fact checking to verify that the Twitter account was in fact belonging to Glen Davis. A quick call to the Celtics organization. An email to Glen’s agent. Something? Anything? No, apparently it was enough to just go to a Twitter profile where the name was filled in as “Glen Davis”.

Personally, I wasn’t following this imposter because I was suspicious from the get-go (as I am with most NBA player Twitter accounts until they’re verified.) The biggest reason I suspected it was a fake? This background image:

Even though we all think of Glen as this big doofus who would post a picture like that to his Twitter, I don’t think he thinks of himself that way. Even if I did believe it was him though, it’s one thing for fans to fall for fake Twitter profiles and quite another for journalists to fall for them and write columns based on their contents. Worse yet though, is for a journalist to fall for a fake profile, write a column based on it and then not admit to his mistake.

Shame on you, Mark Murphy.

ps. It’s amazing to me that an imposter could cause or potentially cause real damage to a person’s career and not get his profile suspended (as of 8:30pm EST 8/7). But, poor Hugging Harold Reynolds (the blog, not the human being) got suspended for 2 days for doing nothing wrong. You’re right on the ball, Twitter!

Related links:

• Twitter: @bigbabybball
• Boston Herald: Glen Davis upset with Celtics
• Boston Herald: Big Baby Glen Davis cries imposter about tweeting tantrum

I guess I should say, “bird down!” really… But, where’s my Twitter?

Twitter has been down all morning and it’s a rather tragic hinderance to my daily routine.

It saddens me that my last tweet to this world might actually end up being, “Smoltz tonight. Blah.”

Mashable says its a denial of service attack.

Perhaps a pissed of Smoltz fan? I promise if you give me my Twitter back, I will not disparage John Smoltz anymore. Or at the very least, I promise to refrain from tweeting that he sucks weenies.

I swear, people left and right are trying to ruin Twitter. First, the Denver Post prints some story about J.R. Smith supposedly using gang signs on his Twitter. Yes, you heard that right. Gang signs. On his Twitter. How the hell does one accomplish THAT? By the end of the day *poof* J.R.’s Twitter is dead as disco. This royally frosts my cupcakes. Why? Because J.R. Smith is was priceless on Twitter. Simply priceless. If I had known this debacle was coming down today I would have at least taken a commemorative screen shot of his page or something. Instead, I’m stuck with this empty J.R.less existence. Not cool, Denver Post. Not cool.

Then, Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) shared the news (while still having balls enough to do so, I might add) that ESPN dropped the hammer. The hammer being a memo to their employees – including on-air personalities — that essentially seeks to cut them off at the knees in terms of what they can and can’t tweet about.

Source: http://twitter.com/RicBucher/status/3132468169

Unless it “serves” ESPN? Wha wha what?! The Worldwide Leader getting all, “I’m your master” on people. That just makes me queasy.

I realize there have to be some standards and practices. Hell, Chad Ochocinco (wait, is it “Ocho Cinco” or “Ochocinco”? Meh. F- it.) posted pictures of the Bengals’ drug test piss cups today on Twitpic. That can’t be kosher.

I commend Chad for giving fans inside access, but this might have been just a tad over the line. Just a tad.

Source: http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/3124716428

I guess we can be happy he didn’t decide we needed to see him actually pee in the cup. Aye yie yie.

Source: http://twitpic.com/cqlbd
From this tweet: http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco/status/3124748206

So, I get it that at some point you have to create some guidelines, but ESPN and their ilk need to understand that the allure of Twitter for many people is the unfiltered access to insiders that it allows. Turn all of your associated Twitter accounts into PR machines vomiting press releases all day and just watch the follower counts drop like a lead balloon.

There has to be a happy medium. While ESPN mulls over just what that is, I hope they keep this in mind: Don’t ruin our fun!

ps. Looks like some NFL teams are cracking down. Thankfully the Bengals are not one of them!

I hate you, Danny Ainge!

Source: http://twitter.com/PDcavsinsider/status/3056207147

More info from NBA.com’s David Aldridge in: Cavaliers Are Powe’s First Choice

…and is there a 12-step program for attention addiction?
* Just when I find myself able to slowly back away from the addictive crack that is Starbury TV, Chad Ocho Cinco has to come along and create a channel on Ustream. Noooooo! I watched a little of “The Ocho Cinco Show” earlier tonight just to see what it was all about. I figured there would be a lot of haterade in the chat room and Chad would be screaming at people to show him their number 1s and refrain from boxing him up UPS-style. It ended up being surprisingly tame, with him brushing most negative comments off and showing off his cigar collection. He did say one startling thing though. He had to leave for dinner and said that when he comes back, he’ll stay up all night and answer questions. Uh oh! I’ve read this script before and it ends with a lot of Drake, crying and petroleum jelly. Not good, not good. Either way folks, just remember… narcissists who crave attention are people too.

Chad shows off his favorite cigars…

You think I didn’t check on Steph? You been eatin’ Vaseline?
* Of course, when I got home from work tonight, I had to check in on my boy Steph on Starbury TV. I watched for a few minutes while he danced frenetically to the now ubiquitous, Diamond Girl, until he started unbuckling his pants and threatened to pull them down. Um yeah, no thank you. I honestly am hoping that some night soon, I’m going to check and that page on Justin.tv will be gone. As “entertaining” as this has been during what might have been a very long and dull off-season, I’d like to see him get some professional help. J.A. Adande wrote a nice piece on the subject that I’ve linked to below.

They tried to put me in a box…

What’s good around the blogosphere:

Off-season? What Off-season?
* Nat from Heels on Hardwood breaks down all the latest “off-season” goings-on: The NBA – Where 365 Days Of Entertainment Happens

Step by Step? Bitch, please
* On his Both Teams Played Hard blog, Jared Wade uncovers an alarming lack of sitcom theme song awareness in Orlando in: Not a Lot of Dave Coulier Fans in Orlando

Hmmm, turtles doing the boinky boink or a tribute post to Paul Pierce? Tough call
* My favorite Red’s Army post to date. A very nice tribute to Paul Pierce and his legacy as a Celtic in: Paul Pierce: The last great Celtic

Speaking of Red’s Army…
* Graham Brunell from Celtics 17 interviewed the guys who run the Red’s Army blog in: Interview With John Karalis and Chuck McKenney Of Red’s Army

What’s good around the mainstream:

Love is love, Daddy!
* In a piece for ESPN, J.A. Adande weighs in on Starbury TV in: Streaming Steph is a sad, sad show

I kid. I tease. It’s not like I’m young enough to be one of Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends myself, but for the love of all things holy…

The funniest part to me is how Spacey is trying to tutor Letterman on using Twitter and somehow thinks it takes a whole hour to see your replies. Oy vey.

As I’ve written before, I’ve been on Twitter awhile and could be classified as a bit of an addict. Being a big NBA fan, I would say that 90% of the people that I’m following are people associated with the Association in some way or other (players, coaches, beat writers, bloggers, fans, etc.) Over time, I’ve discovered that most NBA players fall into one or more of the following types:

The Trailblazer – No, not the Portland variety. This is the NBA player who joined or started using Twitter before most of the others and blazed the trail. Poster child: Shaq (@THE_REAL_SHAQ, Charlie Villaneuva (@CV31)

The Power User – This is the NBA player who has fun with the platform and interacts with fans in a light-hearted way. Posts fun pictures to Twitpic, replies to fans questions and generally “gets it” when it comes to effectively utilizing social media. Poster child: The two players mentioned above + Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward)

The Preacher – This is the NBA player who uses his feed to “enlighten” his followers. Occasionally profound, sometimes tedious, but apparently quite sincere. Poster child: Stephon Marbury (@StarburyMarbury), Amar’e Stoudemire (@Amareisreal)

The Telemarketweeter – The NBA player whose tweets appear self-serving much of the time. He may even promise you a brand new shiny pony if you get him more followers. Poster child: Chris Bosh (@chrisbosh)

The Ivan Boesky – The NBA player who sometimes steps in dog poop by tweeting inside information. You might want to enjoy his candor now, as it seems likely he’ll someday receive a “cease and desist tweeting” letter from the team’s public relations department. Poster child: Kevin Love (@kevin_love)

The Drive-by – This NBA player posts infrequently, but when he does, sometimes you get a barrage of posts one after the other for a few minutes… Then nothing again for at least a month. If you blink, you may miss their tweets. Poster child: Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34)

The Groundhog Day Updater – This NBA player tends to repeat himself. This NBA player tends to repeat himself. Poster child: Dahntay Jones (@dahntay)

The Unverified – This is an account for an NBA player that may or may not be real. Usually has the default background, default icon and only a few updates. Poster child: Jarrett Jack (@Jarrettjack03)

The Ghostweeter – This NBA player may not even know he has a Twitter account. His agent, management company, publicist (or one of their interns) control the account and tweet for them. Poster child: We’ll never know for sure, but we can be suspicious… Warning signs: Perfect grammar. Lack of question, “What’s good?”

Ok, let me start off by saying that I love me some Tyson Chandler and firmly believe he’s a key part of what makes the New Orleans Hornets one of the hottest (gorgeous boy wise) teams in the league. However, what the f is up with his Twitter background? Shout-out to @courtside for bringing his cartoon face Twitter icon to my attention. I saw her tweet, became curious, and ventured out of Tweetdeck to his profile on the web and was met by this… um… background:

I’m not gonna lie. He’s still gorgeous, even if that is a diaper…

God bless you, Twitter!

Old news, but it still cracks me up. I’m late reacting to this because I wasn’t actually on Twitter on the 17th to see it. I read about it on the 18th on BDL. I was covertly perusing NBA blogs in my RSS reader at work when this little gem caught my eye. I literally laughed out loud and then had to explain myself to someone passing by. I’m not sure why, but I was actually surprised by how blunt and snarky the message was. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if it had come from Shaq, but I didn’t realize Pierce was so… honest.

ps. I can’t read this without wanting to cross out “rotweiler” and pencil in “rottweiler”.