NBA Set to Unveil Twitter Guidelines

From Marc Spears at Yahoo! Sports comes the news that NBA is developing a set of guidelines for players and social media, with “Twitter” being the policy’s chief focus. Should players be allowed to tweet from the locker room, or would that undermine the league’s integrity? What about the bench? Got an opinion? Then “Join the Conversation”! 2009!

But seriously, the NBA has a tendency to unveil controversial policies at the beginning of every new season, and this seems like a prime example of that phenomenon. The NBA dress code and the implementation of a new ball come to mind as others. Characteristically shrewd, it appears Stern will once again use this situation to create buzz about the NBA and its players. Good or bad, it will certainly get people talking (and tweeting).

Stern words, via Spears:

“Obviously, there is a happy medium between tweeting before the game and tweeting from our bench during the game,” Stern said by phone. “You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game.”

“We just need to make sure when it’s OK to Tweet and when it’s not OK to Tweet so it at least focuses around the game,” he said. “It would look unusual for a guy sitting on the bench to pick up his cell phone, and I think we can agree that he probably shouldn’t be writing e-mails. It’s not about Twitter; it’s about the line of communication. That’s what we’re focusing on.

“We’re happy to let it play out to see if it merits all the attention that it’s getting. We don’t want to overreact.”

Knowing Stern and the NBA’s aforementioned tendency to use these types of things to drum up discussion in advance of the regular season, this isn’t the last we’ll hear of this. And of the millions of people on Twitter, the NBA players appear to be among the most enthusiastic users, so I doubt they will take kindly to having their expression suffocated by “The Man.”

Will the guidelines restrict tweets like this one?

Time will tell...