When Tweets Go Wrong: Miami Heat Edition
Arena is no-Twitter zone for Heat players
By JESSICA SICK and TODD WRIGHT
Updated 5:36 PM EDT, Tue, Sep 29, 2009
“It’s orange Gatorade day on the sidelines – woo hoo!”
Fans won’t be getting any Twitter updates like the one above from the Miami Heat bench, as coach Erik Spoelstra – via the NBA – has instilled a no-Tweet at work policy – that includes at the arena, home and away.
We think the team should extend the ban to include the bathroom, shower, at picnics or at the club.
Think of all the damage Twitter has already caused the franchise this summer.
Michael Beasley had to go to rehab, Lamar Odom chose to marry the wrong Kardashian instead of play for the Heat and the Answer didn't answer the call to play sidekick to D-Wade.
We blame it all on Twitter.
No longer, says Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who is rumored to go by the Twitter screen name "rileswhippingboy19."
"We'll have strict rules on it," Spoelstra said at the team's media day. "The NBA has put in strict rules about it. Social media, we will not accept that in our building during office hours. That's the way we'll look at it when we're coming to practice, to shootarounds and to games. We're coming to work and we're coming to get a job done. That's not time for social media."
Though not a problem for the Heat last season, Charlie Villanueva created a stir last season when he sent a message on his feed during halftime of a game when he was with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Beasley took it a step further with cryptic tweets and elaborate tattoo pics. Oh, and that baggie wasn't his.
Beasley apparently also attended social networking rehab if you listen to his comments during media day. He doesn't need it in his life.
Wade, aka “dwadeofficial,” has no complaints, however, with either Twitter in general or the Heat policy.
"When you come to work, you come to work," Wade said. "You can tweet before, you can tweet after. It's not addicting like where I'm going to take a bathroom break, go downstairs and tweet."
Riiight, Dwyane. Like you weren't tweeting your desperate little heart out every chance you got to try and woo Odom and Allen Iverson to come join you on South Beach.
We remember those, "A.I. is still the illest little man on the planet" and "I just bought some Sour Patch kids for L.O. lol" tweets this summer that gave Heat fans hope that the team might contend this year.
D-Wade was just another victim of the Twitter monster.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Miami
First Published: Sep 29, 2009 3:49 PM EDT
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