Shaq Tweets At Halftime “SHHHHH…”
Twitter has simply exploded in popularity at an exponential rate for the past six-months and it has really grown into the publics eye. Politicians, celebrities, athletes, and countless others use twitter in their everyday lives. Most recently, Shaquille ONeal has been targeted for using twitter during halftime this past Saturday night as the Suns played Wizards.
The short message was posted right before the third quarter and read, Shhhhhh. Shaq had planned to do this without coach Alvin Gentry knowing, however rumors spread and Gentry said he didnt care all that much Let me rephrase, Gentry is quoted saying As long as he gets 25 (points) and 11 (rebounds), he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, Myspace So I guess as long as he preformed, it was cool.
Shaq ended up with 13 points and 10 rebounds, not quite what was expected, but lead the Suns to victory. For all of you who have twitter accounts and would like to follow Shaq, his Account name is THEREALSHAQ (underscores in between each word) and he is quite the active tweeter using the site to give away tickets from time to time on top of his daily messages. Be sure to add nationaleventco to your following list too to stay in touch with sports, concert and theater news as well as insider tips of the ticketing industry.
Hilarious! Thanks for posting this!
I remember seeing this tweet come through and thinking "Man, I hope he doesn’t get in trouble for this!"
azgiftbaskets
Charlie Villenueva got busted by Scott Skiles for the same thing in Milwaukee’s game against Boston recently. Skiles wasn’t as laid back as Alvin Gentry, though. Surprisingly, both players won their game and had good performances after halftime Tweeting.
Shaq is cutting edge, baby. But Charlie Villanueva of the Bucks was first to twitter his way into the mainstream media–last week he twittered at halftime about "needing to step up his game". Local print and TV media made a big deal of it–what a bunch of twits.
I think it’s funny that this is such a big deal. It just shows that Big Diesel is just like one of us and makes him more approachable as a celebrity. Now if he grabbed his phone during a TV timeout it’s a different story, but if I’m the Suns management I’m embracing that my marquee player is engaging with people and making basketball interesting to more than just diehard fans.
I think CMOs for Major League Baseball teams should consider equipping their bullpen with iPhones and encourage them to Twitter and interact with fans during the game. There is nothing more boring than nine innings of baseball, and an inside look at how the pitchers pass time in the pen or dugout might be interesting.
What is scary is how a player could potentially be communicated back to from an outside source during a game. I worry about the integrity issues that could arise.
This is great! I love reading his Tweets.
Charlie V. got into more trouble in Milwaukee for doing this. What, are athletes not allowed to get swallowed up into social media now? What next, Obama can’t spare any change?
Shaq’s username on Twitter is actually the_real_shaq
Shaq utilizes Twitter so well. I recently read an article in SBJ that stated that for anybody trying to understand how to utilize twitter just follow Shaq and Lance Armstrong.
Like his coach(?) said "as long as he gets 25 and 11, he can do whatever he wants" - classic!
thats why Shaq is from the future
this is hilarious! i wonder what phil jackson would have said if shaq was tweeting when he was with the lakers?!
[...] of them have twitter accounts themselves and are in full support of this growing social network - Shaq’s Halftime Tweet, John Mayer Tweet Obsession. This is not a fad, and will be here for some time until the next new [...]