Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: Tweet no longer a whistle

Alex Brandon, Associated Press - Ap

Count New Orleans Hornets coach Byron Scott, left, as among the anti-tweeters in the NBA.

More and more NBA players are "tweeting" on Twitter, even if their coaches don't know it or understand it.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: March 21, 2009 - 2:50 PM

Byron Scott won three NBA championships when he played for the Lakers and he coached the New Jersey Nets to the NBA Finals twice. He is a worldly guy who can talk intelligently on a variety of subjects.

But if you want to see his head explode, just ask the New Orleans coach if he has a team policy on tweets and tweeting.

"A what?" he asked, his eyes widening.

C'mon, Coach, you know: Tweets, tweeting, the verb for what you do on Twitter, the popular Internet networking site that got Milwaukee forward Charlie Villanueva in trouble with his coach last week. He posted a brief update at halftime during last Sunday's game against Boston and then almost singlehandedly went out and beat the Celtics.

Bucks coach Scott Skiles was not thrilled one of his players used a cellphone to post on the Internet during a game.

"Who did? Charlie Villanueva?" Scott asked, unaware of the latest issue inside an NBA locker room. "No, I don't have a policy on that. I don't know what the hell tweeting is."

Hornets center Tyson Chandler posts regular updates on Twitter. So does Wolves veteran Mark Madsen, who has convinced Brian Cardinal to tweet and also is trying to get Kevin Love to do so. Madsen has his own website and blog and now has joined the Twitter rage along with a cross-section of NBA players that include Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Bosh, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard as well as Dallas owner and technogeek Mark Cuban.

"I'm the kind of guy who follows emerging technologies," Madsen said. "After hearing about it so long, I said I wanted to sign up and see what this thing is all about. I've just been enjoying it. It's fun to stay connected. When I saw Shaq was doing it and Steve Nash was doing it, that's all I needed to see."

O'Neal's Twitter name is The_Real_Shaq and his profile says, "Very quotatious, I perform random acts of Shaqness." Madsen and Cardinal are a little less loquacious. Cardinal posted four updates Wednesday, when the Wolves played at New Orleans. On Thursday, he posted one that read: "Day off here in Houston ... Drinking a venti americano from Starbucks and watching the Boilermakers ... Go Purdue."

"I don't have much that the world needs to know," Cardinal said, "but it [Twitter] is full of things you don't need to know. I've got a bunch of friends on it, and it's an amazing way to keep in touch with everybody. And for fans, it lets them know what we're doing. It lets them into our so-called world of traveling, getting ready for games, getting to sleep at night. It's how kids communicate these days."

Which is why Scott and Wolves coach Kevin McHale have no idea what it is.

"I heard someone say Charlie Villanueva was tweeting," McHale said, "and I thought it meant he went in to take a leak at halftime. I guess that wasn't it. I have no idea what they're doing these days. I'm just glad I can get my computer to five or six sites, one political and four sports ones."

When told he has a player who tweets, Scott cautiously said, "O.K. ..." When told it was Chandler, he said, "I know he has a blog. Is that the same thing?"

Of course not, silly.

"Oh, hell," Scott said, "I don't know."

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