The Most Important NBA Tweets of 2009 (aka #FreeKLove)
by wyn on Dec 31, 2009 11:33 AM CST
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PrintWhile watching the Kings and Sixers duel on League Pass last night, something about the Kings' broadcast piqued my interest and I decided to Tweet about it:
Kings broadcast just displayed and discussed all their players' Twitter accounts. Are you listening Wolves marketing? #FreeKLove
2009 was the Year of Twitter due to the service's widespread adoption, which in turn was due in large part to the access it provides fans to celebrities. Unsurprisingly, professional athletes took to the medium quite well. So much so that the NFL and NBA instituted a social media policy for players before the start of their seasons this Fall.
Buzz Marketing Daily posted their Top 10 Most Important Tweets of 2009 and included one representative from the sports world: Nick Swisher's November 6th tweet from the World Series parade:
Man! This is so crazy and hella fun! I love New York!
Really Buzz Marketing Daily? Really. Really? That's the most important sports tweet of 2009?
Mark Cuban was the first NBA-related person to get a fine for his Tweeting, and most recently a positive, but errantly timed, tweet cost Brandon Jennings $7,500.
What about when Michael Beasley TwitPiced his new tattoo, only to be photobombed by his bag of weed? He started making veiled suicide threats and going to rehab. That seems pretty significant.
Remember when Shaq owned Oprah after her first tweet? An interaction between those two marketing titans on Twitter makes Swisher look like a teen LOLing about what happened in the cafeteria today.
But, of course I'm saving my favorite for last. Sure, it's a little homeriffic, but how about a basketball player breaking the news about his team's coach being fired?
Today is a sad day...Kevin McHale will NOT be back as head coach next season.
THAT, my friends, is an important Tweet. So important that the Timberwolves eventually put the kibosh on Kevin Love's tweeting, despite not reprimanding him. Sure, Ricky Rubio, Ryan Gomes, Brian Cardinal, Jonny Flynn and Ryan Hollins all have their own relatively-active Twitter accounts, but Senor Amor's account has been dormant since August with no signs of resurrection.
Kevin Love is the Timberwolf with the most marketing potential in Minnesota. Race will always be a factor in pro sports marketing, but Love's style of play and down-to-Earth demeanor are far more valuable to the Timberwolves than the color of his skin. Whichever it is, the Timberwolves marketing department (and maybe further up the chain) needs to accept the nature of social media (it's not always polite pats on the back) and Let Love Tweet.
So when you're telling your grandkids on Saturn about important sports tweets of 2009 via hologram, lay off the inane, major-market Swishers of the world and stick to Minnesota. That's where the trend-setters are.
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Race will always be a factor in pro sports marketing...
Do the names Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods mean anything to you? Kobe Bryant?
I don’t think race has a lot to do with pro sports marketing, at least not anymore. Love is marketable locally because he’s a good player, but he’s not going to break into the big time like KG did until he’s a great basketball player.
Pining for a Troy Hudson/Marko Jaric backcourt.
i THINK he meant...
..that, right now, in basketball, white players are less marketable.
by davechisholm on Dec 31, 2009 12:22 PM CST up reply actions
No, That's Absolutely Not What He Meant
He meant that being white was an advantage. Read it again. But, whatever, this is about tweeting and my comment about something in the article is “hijacking” the thread, so I’ll shut up.
#JustPerformAndEndorsementDollarsComeUnlessYouAreJerkLikeBondsorLaimbeer
Pining for a Troy Hudson/Marko Jaric backcourt.
okey dokey.
you don’t have to get all pissed off! haha
by davechisholm on Dec 31, 2009 1:58 PM CST up reply actions
I think my grammar indicated that I hijacked the topic by mentioning it...
But clearly my communication skills need work.
www.canishoopus.com
It's a basic concept
And one that was discussed in the Mayo-Love trade a long time ago. Hopefully this quashes it and simmers things down a bit, but basically what it comes down to is that you are more likely to garner more support (in addition to the most important aspects, performance and likeability/Qrating) in a market where people are most like you.
It’s not a good or bad/better or worse thing, just a simple fact that people identify with those that are like them. Minny is mostly white, and therefore identify with Love. Going with what you say, it proves true since almost nobody identifies with Cardinal because he’s awful. It’s just a piece to a puzzle, though an unimportant one in the grand scheme of things.
Really?
Love is more marketable locally because he’s a good player and he happens to be white.
Obviously, he won’t make a big splash nationally until/unless he’s more of a big-time player. He’s never going to be a LeBron but do you really not think that, if he becomes a great player in the league, his race doesn’t help increase his marketability? Really? (Have you heard him with Simmons or Dan Patrick?) Why does the national media go b*tsh*t crazy for really great white college players, even if they’re not really good pro prospects? Why is there always so much excitement to find the next Larry Bird (a lost cause, of course)? Right or wrong, there’s a niche there, and Kevin Love could potentially fill it.
That said, I don’t think the post was about race, as much as that the Wolves FO needs to market the team better and by stifling Love (if that’s what they are doing), they’re taking away a powerful tool to do that.
Perhaps my opinion would've been more accurately stated as...
Race will always be a factor in pro sports marketing discussions.
But, seeing as how I wish I wouldn’t have even mentioned it at all so as not to hijack the topic away from social media, this is the last I will mention race in this thread.
www.canishoopus.com
Sorry if this is a dumb question...
but what is the meaning of #FreeKLove? I mean, I understand the general meaning, that you want Kevin Love to start tweeting again and be a bigger part of the Wolves’ marketing push, but when I click the link, it sends me to a search page for the term ‘#FreeKLove’, the results of which are almost entirely just links back to this post.
And darn it, where's my gamewrap?
Love almost had a triple double, and I need a place to slobber all over him.
I think it is Twitter lingo
Like #______ = #[a topic]
(It’s a way to group Tweets)
So the topic is “Free K Love”
correct interpretation of #
and wouldn’t you rather read a gamewrap from S&P? i know i would
www.canishoopus.com
I wonder if Twittering is somewhat overrated as a marketing tool.....
while also being underrated as a tool for bringing disharmonies to the surface. In this respect while it is disappointing Kevin Love is being censored, I can understand David Kahn not wanting his best player being live to air when he makes some of the decisions he is required to make over the next 18 months:
- picking up (or not) Ryan Gomes’ option
- making a QO (or not) to Corey Brewer
- signing Kevin Love to an extension
- trading Al Jefferson (?)
A trade move turns instantly into a story about unhappy stars. Of course the other thing Love could do with twitter is create a free agency market for himself:
" Oh, it would be sweet to play with [insert name here]…."
“I’d really love to keep in touch with my [old college buddies, family, girlfriend]. It would be so much easier in [insert name here]…”
"I tell one of my media colleagues to watch Hollins, who regards cutters entering his vicinity with the sort of startled amazement newborn infants have when their own appendages enter their vision for the first times."
-Britt Robson
#freeklove?
I’d argue from his recent comments w/ Dan Patrick that he doesn’t want to be freed. He said twitter is a “fad” and despite blaming his lack of tweets on the organization, didn’t seem like he’d have continued tweeting had he not been “reprimanded”.
I do agree however that he should be the face of this franchise, marketing-wise.
by callmeishmael on Dec 31, 2009 4:15 PM CST via mobile reply actions
Thanks for the info
I didn’t hear the Patrick interview, so thanks for the heads up on that.
He may have gotten sick of Twitter, but I’m not sure I’d take his opinions on technology trends to heart :)
www.canishoopus.com
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