NBA Fines Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban $25,000 For Twitter Post

Cuban Questions Refs On His Twitter Page

The NBA yesterday fined Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban $25,000 for his "criticism of referees" that he posted on his Twitter page, according to Eddie Sefko of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. After Friday's game against the Nuggets, Cuban "questioned why a technical foul wasn't called on [Nuggets G] J.R. Smith for taunting" Mavericks G Antoine Wright near the end of Friday night's game. Cuban said that Twitter has "become so popular he thought it was just a way to have fun with fans who interact with him on the site" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 3/30). In Dallas, Tim MacMahon noted Wright and Smith "got in each other's faces by the Denver bench after Wright's missed jumper with seconds remaining essentially sealed the Nuggets' win." Cuban "took his frustration out on his keyboard minutes after the loss, posting twice about the incident on his Twitter page." Cuban wrote, "How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground?" A second tweet said, "Scary part of that play: Same crew chief from game in Denver where they missed call -- last play of the game & 1st JRSmith/Wright issue" (DALLASNEWS.com, 3/27). Meanwhile, Cuban wrote on his blog, "Is a tweet copyrightable? Is a tweet copyrighted by default when [it's] published? Can there possibly be a fair use exception for something that is only 140 characters or less?" Cuban: "I did not give anyone permission to republish my tweets in a commercial newspaper, magazine or website. So when an ESPN.com or any other outlet republishes a tweet, have they violated copyright law?" (BLOGMAVERICK.com, 3/29).

FAN FRIENDLY: In Ft. Worth, Drew Davison reports NASCAR drivers "have found a new way to connect with fans like never before, as social networking sites are starting to take over" the sport. The sites are "especially helpful" for young drivers like David Ragan, as they "help attract more fans." Minnesota-based Risdall Integration Group President Jared Roy said that he would recommend that the drivers "communicate on the sites rather than a PR representative." Although it is "not feasible for the driver to respond to every comment or e-mail, Roy believes the driver's voice and personality should be visible." Ragan said that he "does have someone handle the day-to-day 'legwork,' but, for the most part, he's updating his Facebook and Twitter status." Meanwhile, driver Kyle Busch is "using Twitter during races to update fans when he has car trouble, screams at another driver or goes in for a pit stop." Davison notes instead of sponsoring an entire race team, which is "becoming even more difficult for some companies in this economic climate," marketing agencies are "using the sites as an alternative to brand a company without losing the NASCAR presence." Below is a chart of some current NASCAR drivers who have Twitter pages (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 3/30).

DRIVER	TWITTER SCREEN NAME
Kyle Busch	mmsracing
David Ragan	upsracing
Kurt Busch	kurtbusch
Bobby Labonte	bobby_labonte
Juan Pablo Montoya	jpmontoya
Kyle Petty	kylepetty
Kevin Harvick	kevinharvick
Marcos Ambrose	MarcosAmbrose

IDENTITY THEFT: In Toronto, Damien Cox notes Maple Leafs President & GM Brian Burke "has been fighting a battle with twitter for some time now because someone out there has been, well, impersonating him at twitter.com/brianburke." Burke had his lawyer "try to put a stop to it about a month ago, which left Burke somewhat surprised yesterday to hear it was still up and operating, albeit with a disclaimer attached now that reads, 'Yes, it's a parody.'" Burke: "If someone's going to try and impersonate Brian Burke, I'm going to sue his ass." Cox notes there are "numerous other fake twitter accounts, including one with Gary Bettman's name attached to it that doesn't have the parody disclaimer attached" (THESTAR.com, 3/30).

CREATING AN ACCOUNT: USA TODAY's Bob Kimball reports the 76ers "have realized" Twitter is an "excellent way to communicate with fans." The team's tweets are "written by the new media and public relations staff offering courtside insight, practice items and special deals for fans." There is "no worry about tipping in-game strategy." 76ers VP/Marketing Eric Blankenship said, "We're hopeful that if it's something one of our players wants to do ... we'll help them out" (USA TODAY, 3/30). Meanwhile, Celtics F Paul Pierce joined Twitter this weekend and posted the following messages prior to last night's game against the Thunder, "Change in schedule first 5 fan wit my jersey on at players parkin entrance get tik to todays game. ... Time to meet is exactly 430 passcode truth." The winners watched the game from Pierce's suite at TD Banknorth Garden (PAULPIERCE.net, 3/29).

TOO MUCH ACCESS? Syndicated columnist Norman Chad writes in-game Twitter posts are the "wave of a bleak future because people want to know and need to know and have to know what's running through the mind" of athletes during games. This is the "so-called Information Age, characterized, rather unfortunately, by too much information." Chad: "Frankly, I don't want all-access. It was better when we knew less about our entertainers and athletes -- nothing detracted from their on-screen or on-field image" (Mult., 3/30).