I recently read a story on ESPN.com that described the new policies regarding social media that the NBA has put into place.
The first paragraph of Marc Stein's Sept. 30 article on the website reads, "The NBA formally announced its new social media guidelines ... informing teams through a league memorandum that the use of cell phones, PDAs and other electronic communications devices — and thus accessing Twitter, Facebook and similar social media sites — is now prohibited during games for players, coaches and other team personnel involved in the game."
The ban extends from 45 minutes before the opening tip-off to 45 minutes after the postgame locker room is open to the media in addition to the coaches and players having fulfilled their obligation to be available to media attending the game.
My first reaction to this was one of pleasant surprise. Maybe, I thought, Commissioner David Stern has finally stopped trying to force-feed the NBA to half the world's population and is actually doing something to improve the game.
But my second reaction was one of disappointment. Not only is Stern continuing to hatch plans for the next NBA Kuwait, NBA Micronesia and God knows what else, but the fact that the league felt the need to institute this type of social media policy is truly disheartening.
By no means am I blaming the NBA front office here. They did what they had to do. It's the players, who have seemingly always felt that they are the most important people on the face of the planet — all due apologies to folks like John Stockton and Tim Duncan here — that made such a measure necessary.
Okay, say it is 45 minutes before game time. What should you, as a professional basketball player and an alleged adult, be doing? The obvious answer would be something like shooting free throws, maybe doing some quick film study, or just relaxing and getting yourself mentally and physically ready for the game.
Apparently, it's not that simple. Forty-five minutes before the game, the Denver Nuggets' Chris Andersen might be busy checking the Facebook statuses of all his peeps back in rehab, or maybe the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard is sending a text message to the Miami Heat's Quentin Richardson reminding him that, if he wears a costume when he plays, everyone will think he's ten times better than he really is.
It's also entirely possible that the New York Knicks' Nate Robinson is sending out mass e-mails to remind everyone just how awesome he is and how they can expect legendary things from him when he comes off the bench in about an hour or so.
To be fair, though, this rule was really only put into effect to curtail "tweeting." Stern will not come right out and say so, but if that's not the case, then why is this policy going into effect right now, as Twitter's popularity has officially reached dizzying heights and shows no sign of slowing down? It's because the NFL has already had problems with its players and their Twitter accounts, and the NBA, which has a whole host of its own issues, cannot afford to add another one to the list.
But the thing is, tweeting is something that should only take about thirty seconds, maybe a minute if you're a slow typist — you're only required to enter 140 characters. And yet, the NBA is so fearful of it becoming a distraction for its egomaniacal players that it had no choice but to deprive the world of learning what wild antics the Washington Wizards' JaVale McGee — otherwise known as @bigdaddywookie — was up to half an hour before game time.
Coming from a league that is used to being driven by star power, this just strikes me as kind of sad.
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Rory Parks is a senior majoring in international relations and Spanish. He can be reached at Rory.Parks@tufts.edu
