He calls himself Agent Zero. His shirt number is a big, fat zero. And this accurately reflects the number of tweets Gilbert Arenas has posted to his Twitter account.
It's not that Arenas, the Washington Wizards point guard, isn't confident of his literary skills. Oh, no. Just look at his finely sculpted blog.
However, according to The Washington Post, Arenas has no interest in being a small time Twitter player. He wants 1 million followers before he will start to offer tweets from his copious and wondrous life and imagination.
Just last week Arenas told the Associated Press that he's chosen to go for 1 million because "it's so far-fetched."
And when some cruel know-it-all tried to point out that the way folks normally get followers is, well, by tweeting, Arenas replied with the sagacity of Wittgenstein: "I'm trying to do the opposite."
So that you can get some sense of Arenas' twittering possibilities, I have embedded a small piece of film featuring the Arenas bobblehead, quite a character in its own right.
However, I know you'll be wondering just how far away Arenas is from achieving immortal far-fetchedness. Well, he's pretty close to catching Shaquille O'Neal, who enjoys just over 2.5 million followers.
Yes, Arenas has already amassed, at the time of typing this, 5,717 followers. Perhaps the 4-9 Wizards will need to win a few more games before his Twitter page is swamped by mass anticipation of Arenas' first tweet.
The Golden State Warriors don't play defense--except, perhaps, when it comes to the indefensible.
Please imagine you're a disgruntled Warriors fan. For two seasons, everything seemed to suddenly and strangely go well. After what felt like 20 seasons of desperation, playoffs were reached. No. 1 seeds were defeated.
Then, for reasons that seem all too evident to those who give the Warriors money (disclosure: myself included), there is a handbasket drifting downward from purgatory with a large Warriors logo printed on its side.
Naturally, fans voice their views on various sites. One of which is WarriorsWorld.net. Much of the commentary lately has been of a negative nature.
One shining beacon of light was offered by "Flunkster Dude." Commenting on a season-ticket holder conference call hosted by General Manager Larry Riley, President Robert Rowell and TV play-by-play man Bob Fitzgerald, he wrote: "I actually enjoyed the call and appreciate their honesty."
Which not so many other commenters did. Even fewer do now, as the WarriorsWorld.net chaps traced the IP back to a certain office. You're there already, aren't you? Yes, to the office of the Golden State Warriors.
Flunkster Dude is, in fact, Flackster Dude. Real name, Raymond Ridder, PR man for the Golden State Warriors.
The journalist who published the revelation this week, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, received a very quaint response from Ridder: "It was 100% me. And I'll take 100% responsibility, if anybody thinks I did anything wrong. It was completely on my own. I've never been told to do anything by anybody here. It was just me."
Naturally, I enjoyed his response and appreciated his honesty. Especially the part about never having been told to do anything by anybody.
However, Flunkster Dude was not done. He continued to offer his honesty in a most disarming way: "It was nothing malicious at all. I just wanted to get the conversation going in a positive direction-I thought we had a good conference call, I had some good conversations with some season-ticket-holders, then I got to my office and I looked on the internet and all I saw was negative comments, complaints, nothing positive."
So the obvious step for a fine PR chappy was to hide that he was a fine PR chappy, in the bizarre hope that, by leaving a positive comment, all like-thinking, enlightened fans, marveling at the Warriors 29 wins last season, would emerge from beneath some unseen parquet and toss more garlands on top of his.
Now here's the fun part. (You thought there wouldn't be a fun part?) This doesn't appear to be the first time Flunkster Dude has flacked his wings and flown.
He admitted to Kawakami that he had posted four other bonmots on WW.net. All, you will be overwhelmed to hear, were dunks on behalf of management.
One was even a negative comment about one of the better (but not, sadly, better-dressed) journalists who follow the Warriors, a tall man who plays a mean game of pickup (he's played and squashed some friends of mine), Matt Steinmetz.
You might think that Flunkster Dude has flunked the very first test of social media.
You might think that someone who posts anonymously about honesty, when himself being just slightly less than entirely honest about his interest in the matter, might just think about a career in politics.
However, I might think that you have never been a fan of the most maddening, ridiculous, disquieting, arrogant, ignorant and, just occasionally, sickeningly lovable mess that is the Golden State Warriors.
I will not hear anyone criticize their sublime fish and chips, though.
(Disclosure and, um, an ad: I appear regularly on Patrick Mauro's nationally syndicated show on Sports Byline USA, Sundays at 11 p.m. Honestly.)
You know a Web app has come into its own when it gets banned in courtrooms and locker rooms.
Twitter, which went from being just another Web geek service to an Internet phenomenon lampooned on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," is now becoming a nuisance for at least two American institutions--the judicial system and the NBA.
Some judges and lawyers believe the integrity of trials is being threatened by jurors posting comments about cases on the popular microblogging service.
Lawyers for a building products company are asking an Arkansas court to overturn a $12.6 million judgment against the firm after a juror tweeted during the trial, violating court rules, The New York Times reports.
And in Pennsylvania, defense lawyers for a former state senator found guilty of corruption failed to persuade a judge to declare a mistrial after a juror posted updates on the case on Twitter and Facebook. The lawyers plan to use that for grounds for appeal, the newspaper reported.
For some jurors, the 140-limit of Twitter may be too limiting. A juror blogged about a drunk-driving case before and after a guilty verdict was rendered, in 2007. Regardless, the verdict was upheld and a request for a new trial was denied.
The report also found that jurors are using their iPhones and BlackBerrys to do research in cases, which also is forbidden.
The use of the Internet for research isn't new. In 2007, the conviction of a man accused of sexually abusing minors was reversed and a new trial was granted after two jurors searched for the alleged victims on MySpace.
Sports players are also communicating with their fans on Twitter. Although that is not likely to interfere with game scores, it is still worrisome, at least to Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles. He has asked his players not to use Twitter from the locker room after learning that Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva tweeted from his mobile phone during halftime on Sunday.
"In da locker room, snuck to post my twit. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up," Villanueva tweeted using the screen name CV31, his initials and jersey number, according to the Associated Press.
The fact that the Bucks beat the Celtics 86-77 didn't really appease the coach.
"You know, (we) don't want to blow it out of proportion," Skiles said. "But anything that gives the impression that we're not serious and focused at all times is not the correct way we want to go about our business."
More than 14,000 fans at the Quicken Loans arena in Cleveland watched a live 3D broadcast of Game 2 of the 2007 NBA finals when the Cleveland Cavaliers took on the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio.
(Credit: NBA)The NBA is teaming up with Turner Sports and Cinedigm Digital Cinema to broadcast live in 3D its All-Star Saturday Night events to 80 movie theaters across the U.S. on February 14.
The Live 3D event will be shown on up to 160 screens in 35 states across the country. Pricing for the tickets hasn't been set yet, but a representative from Cinedigm, the technology company behind the event, told the Los Angeles Times that tickets will likely sell for between $18 and $22 a pop.
This isn't the first event that the NBA has broadcast live in 3D. In 2007, it held special viewing parties in Las Vegas for the NBA All-Star 2007 events. And for Game 2 of the NBA finals in 2007, the Cleveland Cavaliers set up a 3D "theater" in the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland so that 14,000 fans could watch the Cavaliers play the San Antonio Spurs on four 60-foot screens. Also, in 2008, the Dallas Mavericks delivered a live 3D coverage of a game to a theater in Dallas to 500 fans.
"Taking the 3D experience nationwide is the next step," said Steve Hellmuth, executive vice president of technology and operations for the NBA. "It gives fans a chance to watch the NBA like never before."
Other sports leagues also see the potential in airing games in 3D. Last week, the NFL broadcast its Thursday night game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders in 3D to three theaters in Los Angeles, Boston, and New York as part of an invitation-only event to show off the technology. Fox Sports also said last week that it plans to air college football's Bowl Championship Series title game in 3D in theaters. And the network also hopes to air the Daytona 500 in 3D.
Right now these 3D viewing events all take place in theaters. But Hellmuth thinks that in the future 3D viewing might actually become more common in the home. TV makers are already starting to produce 3D capable sets. And more are expected next year as movies filmed in 3D come to DVD and Blu-Ray.
"What will really drive 3D into the home will be movies filmed in 3D," Hellmuth said. "And once there is more content, I think that makes the business case more compelling for delivering sports in 3D to the home."
The biggest hurdle right now for 3D content is the expense. It's not only expensive to shoot films or live events in 3D, but it's also expensive to deliver live broadcasts. Delivering live sports in 3D to homes on a regular basis would mean that paid TV providers like cable operators, satellite providers, and the phone companies, would have to upgrade their networks to accommodate these streams of content. Regular standard definition television broadcasts consume more bandwidth capacity than other types of traffic like audio or text. High-definition video eats up even more. And Hellmuth said it would likely take at least two full high-definition channels to broadcast live just one game in 3D.
But as service providers, like Verizon, deploy more fiber in their networks, capacity issues could be overcome. Still, it could take years for other providers, such as cable operators, to build the necessary capacity.
In the meantime, sports fans will likely be able to see some games and big sporting events in 3D in 3D-capable theaters. But Hellmuth said he doesn't expect regular season games to be shown in this way, simply because it would cost too much. But for big events, such as playoff or championship games, he believes there is a place for 3D broadcasts in theaters.
"There are certain events where people want to feel a sense of community," he said. "And I think that's when people will go to a theater to watch a game in 3D."
This makes sense. Most people watch regular season games in the comfort of their own home. But they often congregate somewhere for the really big games. Isn't that why there's always a crowd in the local sports bar during the World Series or why people have Super Bowl parties?
The National Basketball Association plans to break a new barrier for U.S. sports leagues by streaming live games to local markets on the Web.
According to a story published Monday by the Sports Business Journal, the NBA plans to negotiate contracts for its member teams so they can stream live games to targeted local online audiences this fall. Bill Koenig, executive vice president of business affairs, told the industry publication: "We hope to have a model in place this season. Our opening up of the rights will certainly be done."
The rights Koenig referred to have been a sticky issue since the advent of streaming video and the rush of sports fans to the Internet. Cable operators and regional sports networks hold various exclusive rights to broadcast live games via network TV, cable, radio, and satellite; and they haven't wanted to see the Internet cannibalize their prime-time business by allowing anyone to access games on demand.
The NBA, according to the story, has authorized its teams to introduce live local streaming on their Web sites for the fall season. Details are still unclear; but in theory, Boston residents would be able to watch the Boston Celtics game on the team's Web site.
The NBA reportedly plans to use geo-targeting technology to block out-of-market visitors to the site, so those people would still need to watch it on a national cable station.
The NBA is reportedly still working out the details on whether games would be streamed for free, with advertisements, or even on which sites they would be shown. It is also dealing with rights issues and potential pushback from regional sports networks.
Yahoo and Turner Broadcasting System announced on Thursday a multi-year content and advertising alliance.
Under the agreement, Yahoo Sports will gain access to content from the league sites of the National Basketball Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing that are managed by Turner Broadcasting. And, in turn, Turner Network will be able to exclusively sell all display, sponsorship, and video advertising in Yahoo Sports' NBA, Nascar, and golf pages on Yahoo Sports.
On Yahoo Sports, Turner will provide live and on-demand video, leaderboards, and editorial content for the NBA, Nascar, PGA Tour and PGA pages. The league sites will also receive their own fixed location on the relevant sports pages.
The agreement is part of a publisher partnership strategy Yahoo began during the fall, which aims to create an interdependent advertising-reseller network.
"By aligning with Turner and enabling them to extend Yahoo inventory to sell to advertisers, we will engage the most targeted audience of sports enthusiasts available on the Internet, " Todd Teresi, senior vice president of Yahoo's Publisher Channel, said in a statement.
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