Surprise, Surprise, Mark Cuban has been fined again by the NBA for criticizing officials. This time he was fined $25,000 for criticizing officials after (in Cuban’s opinion) they failed to call Denver Nuggets player J.R. Smith for coming off the bench to taunt Maverick’s player Antoine Wright. Cuban has been upset by the lack of a call on Smith in a previous meeting and he was fined $25,000 for that complaint as well. Those of us who follow the NBA know Mark Cuban getting fined happens almost as much as a Dwight Howard double-double. Cuban does match every league imposed fine with a personal donation to charity. The reason this incident is note worthy is because of the medium Cuban used to criticize NBA officiating. Cuban used the increasingly popular online social network Twitter to voice his displeasure.
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to post 140 character message that allows readers to see what a person is doing. Many celebrities are among the users of Twitter including Lance Armstrong (who ‘Tweeted’ before and after his recent surgery) and Barack Obama who uses Twitter to keep Americans informed of his life. Twitter has also permeated its way inside NBA locker rooms. Charlie Villanueva, a forward for the Milwaukee Bucks, started the growing fad of posting Tweet updates during half-time of games. Villanueva posted that he needed to pick it up in the second half. Milwaukee head coach Scott Skiles was not happy about the move, believing Villanueva was not focused on playing basketball. Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry felt differently when his star posted during half-time of a recent Suns Wizards game. Shaquille O’Neal posted the message “Shhhhhhh,”. Gentry says he does not care what Shaq does so long as he gets his 25 points and double digit rebounds.
As the third largest social network Twitter is another example of our need for constant information and celebrities are using it to keep us informed of their every actions. Personally I could wait a little bit longer than instantly to hear about certain events but it looks like Twitter is here to stay.
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