Twitter Craze

For those of you who are not familiar with the new craze Twitter it's a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Many pro athletes have Twitter such as Steve Nash, Shaq, CC Sabathia, Jay Cutler, Josh McDaniels, Nick Swisher, Charlie Villanueve, and Mark Cuban.

Several of these have made headlines the past few weeks for being warned by teams or even fined by NBA for using Twitter. Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueve got a talking to from coach Scott Skiles when Villanueve posted a tweet during halftime of one of the Bucks games. Villanueve posted "In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up." Coach Scott Skiles believed it gave the impression the Bucks were not focused.

Recently Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 for criticizing refs on twitter. Cuban posted a tweet after a 103-101 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Cuban complained about JR Smith not getting a technical foul for taunting Antoine Wright after a missed shot. After Cuban received the fined he posted another tweet saying "can't say no one makes money from twitter now. the NBA does."

I for one have never liked the fining of players/coaches for criticizing refs. They have a right to an opinion and to voice it. The incident with Villanueve I can understand though. It seemed to me like that would give off signs that he wasn't focused. I however don't see that he wasn't focused though. He wasn't fined and didn't deserve to be. As for mark Cuban's fine I don't agree with it. There have been many instances where random people have posed as a celebrity. My question is did the NBA look into whether or not it was really Cuban before handing out the fine?

If the NBA plans on handing outs fines like the Cuban fine then they need to hold a press conference and address the Twitter situation so it isn't a guessing game on what can be "tweeted."

Another Twitter I ran into while on the website was a rather entertaining Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels Twitter accounts. I would suggest checking them out. No confirmation on whether they are "real."