A few days ago I wrote a blog post about the aftermath of Twitter promotions. The premise of the article being that what happens after your original Tweet can be any body’s guess.
If you follow this blog, you know that I’m a big NBA fan and am always looking for ways to tie basketball into my posts. So, I need to give a big thanks to Mr. Charlie Villanueva for being the first NBA player to be caught Tweeting during a professional game!
Charlie plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, which is a franchise that is currently fighting for the last of 8 playoff spots in the Eastern conference. Charlie also plays for a notoriously hard-nosed coach, Mr. Scott Skiles, who is the only point guard in history to ever get into a fight with @THE_REAL_SHAQ. (Literally Skiles at 6′ 2″ and 180 lbs tried to tangle with 7′ 1″ and 325 lbs Shaq). Apparently, Skiles reamed Charlie pretty good for his lack of discretion in jumping on Twitter during a game! I guess Charlie should consider himself lucky not to have been playing for Jerry Sloan. Jerry might have kicked him off the team or a few days.
So what exactly did Charlie do? During halftime of Sunday’s game against the Boston Celtics, Charlie sent the following 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.” Coincidentally, Charlie had a team high point total of 19 and the Bucks won the game. Regardless of the positive outcome, Skiles was worried that Charlie’s Tweet sent a message of being unfocused. I tend to agree.
I love this story. I love that NBA players are becoming big Twitter users. I love that Charlie was crazy enough to send a Tweet during an actual game. And, I love that Skiles called him out for it, because Tweets often can and will bite you back.
