The National Basketball Association is initiating new social media guidelines for its players, banning the use of websites like Twitter and Facebook during games.
League officials have sent a memo to all 30 teams announcing the guidelines for the proper use of social media sites by the players, coaches and front office workers.
"During games, the use of cell phones, PDAs, other electronic communication devices, and social media or networking sites [including Twitter, Facebook and other sites and services] by coaches, players and other team basketball operations personnel is prohibited," said a portion of the memo.
The memo states that the ban will be in place 45 minutes before the start of each game and last until the post-game media interviews are finished.
The announcement also stated teams "are free to adopt their own rules relating to the use of electronic communication devices and social media sites and services during practices, meetings and other team events."
NBA Commissioner David Stern is a wise man. That low-budget Bill Gates looking sonofabitch was smart to institute a ban prohibiting players from using Twitter 45 minutes before games until the press is allowed in the locker room after games. After a controversy last season where Charlie Villanueva tweeted during halftime of a game, Stern decided that enough was enough! He wasn’t about to let one of his players just talk shit freely like a @terrellowens or an @OGOchoCinco!
It’s a good rule, because it minimizes the chance of an athlete publishing something stupid for the entire world to see. I have all the respect in the world for pro athletes, but let’s face it: Sometimes, some of them say really dumb things.
Granted, lots of people say dumb things…It’s just that when athletes do it, it ends up on SportsCenter. Next, millions of people start to criticize them and it becomes this big stink of a situation. Why not give those guys time to cool off from the heat of competitive game situations before expressing themselves?
Can you imagine what Rasheed Wallace’s twitter account would look like if he were allowed to Tweet immediately after getting ejected from a game?
