Twitter, Sports' Biggest New Hitter

These days many professional athletes will do just about anything to get attention. Publicly dissing famous ex-girlfriends (Sean Avery), weeping over criticisms of teammates (Terrell Owens), and even shooting themselves in the leg (Plaxico Burress, although that may have been unintentional).

So it should come as no surprise that the world of sports has taken quite a liking to the world of Twitter, the newest up and coming social networking craze to hit our web browsers.

In case you are unfamiliar, Twitter allows users to post, up to 140 characters, describing anything from what they are doing, to how they are feeling, to what kind of sandwich they had for lunch (Shaq enjoys pastrami on rye).

Aside from updating your status, or “tweeting” as it is called, users can read other people’s updates by following their Twitters. Caught on yet? Well if you haven’t, sports stars have.
Pro athletes are following in the footsteps of the Twitter pioneers and jumping at the opportunity to get their thoughts, opinions, and ideas out to the world.

Shaquille O’Neal, possibly sports’ most entertaining athlete, updates his Twitter multiple times daily with his famous “Shaq-isms”, jokes, and jabs. Cyclist Lance Armstrong, has used his Twitter to help raise awareness for his cancer charities. And numerous others are catching on, including coaches like USC’s Pete Carroll, who use the social networking site to discuss player injuries and starting lineups.

But of course, as sports stars crave attention 24/7, some have decided to abuse the quick way to get in touch with fans. Many sports fans were introduced to Twitter recently thanks to an incident that occurred in the Milwaukee Bucks locker room during halftime of their game against the Boston Celtics last month.

Bucks’ forward Charlie Villanueva, after a disappointing first half, decided to get in touch with his fans with a little tweet… “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."

Despite the fact he did step it up, scoring a team-high 19 points in the win over Boston, he got a talking to from coach Scott Skiles… and rightfully so.

Charlie should know better. As a paid employee of the Milwaukee Bucks, it is his job to be focused on the game and the game only. Even if he was letting fans know he needed to focus better during the second half, his halftime tweeting still shows his main priority was getting attention from fans during the basketball game.

Instead, he should take notes from fellow tweeters like Shaq who has had a great time interacting with fans through Twitter. Just recently, Shaq sent out a tweet informing fans that he would give two tickets to the next Suns home game to the first person in the Phoenix area to touch him in the next five minutes.

This is just another “random act of Shaqness”, as he refers to it on his Twitter bio. But fans are definitely responding. Shaq’s following on Twitter grows everyday and is rising up into the hundreds of thousands.

Twitter is no doubt a great way for these athletes to have some fun and get closer to fans. But just like on the courts and playing fields, athletes must understand how to conduct themselves and network with a team first attitude.