NBA Player Twitters

Last week I heard this story about Charlie Villanueva catching grief over sending a Twitter message to fans during halftime of a basketball game.  One report mentioned Villanueva not seeing the difference in tweeting at halftime vs. giving a locker room interview at halftime. 

It seems really simple to me.  Media organizations spend big money with the NBA and it's franchises to have access to players at such times.  If info will be given out freely, why would those organizations bow at the feet of NBA execs for that access?  My guess is that the problem was not in his lack of focus (though that was the reasoning given in public), but rather the leapfrog effect it took over his superiors to provide the info during high demand times.  Villanueva took bargaining power from his execs by providing his comments free of charge.

Maybe he should be traded to the Mavericks where owner Mark Cuban sees the advantages of using social media to improve his marketing position.

I'm a user and fan of Twitter but would suggest anyone who uses it to not let it take away from their time they are being payed to work or from the leverage their employer has on their market.  If those two things are followed... tweet away.

JC