As we approach the start of the NBA season, preseason prognostications run the gamut, most of which consist of predictable accolades to be on the lookout for.
League MVP.
Rookie of the Year.
Sixth Man of the Year.
Boring, boring, boring.
There are so many other cool categories out there that are more than just barbershop talk, or water cooler conversations.
And nothing seems to captivate audiences – and players – more than social media.
Boston Celtics
While many players dabble in it, only a select few consistently move us to retweet with every 140 or less character diatribe.
Here’s a look at the NBA Social Media All-Stars.
Forget about the talent and the athleticism that’s on display every night in the NBA. Social media has put NBA players and the league as a whole on another level relative to their professional athlete/league brethren.
The back-and-forth with fans, the verbal jabs, the social commentary, the humor… NBA social media has it all.
And when you talk NBA and social media, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid stands head and shoulders above the rest.
He began his NBA career on the bench nursing injuries his first two years, which gave him plenty of time to sharpen his Twitter game.
Since then he has been an absolute social media savage, whether it’s promoting the team’s “Trust the Process” mantra or clapping back at fellow NBA players like Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns who should have known better than to go at Embiid via social media.
And you don’t have to go at him on social media to get him riled up, either.
Ask Boston’s Aron Baynes, who has been the center of a few Embiid tweets last year before and after Boston eliminated Philadelphia in the second round of the playoffs last spring.
Another player who shouldn't be attacked via social media is Golden State’s Kevin Durant. What makes Durant such an social media boss is his take-no-prisoners attitude when it comes to clapping back at fans, whether it’s with his verified social media accounts or the burner accounts he reportedly had and used previously.
LeBron James’ place among the game’s all-time greats by itself makes him a must-follow on social media.
But James has not rested on the popularity of his play to draw attention to what he posts on social media.
James has used social media as a platform to bring increased awareness to a variety of social issues that concern him and others; promote his non-basketball endeavors including movies and TV shows he stars in as well as produces; in addition to offering support and encouragement to other players like teammate Lonzo Ball and San Antonio's Dejounte Murray, who recently suffered a torn ACL injury.
We may have to get Damian Lillard an honorary membership to the Pro Basketball Writers Association for the “breaking news” tweets he had this year involving members of the media moving on to different jobs.
Like most of the more active NBA players on social media, Lillard isn’t shy about letting fans have it when he feels he’s being attacked or treated unfairly.
The last member of the All-Star social media team is another Portland Trail Blazer, C.J. McCollum.
When it comes to McCollum, there really doesn’t seem to be anything that’s off-limits to talk about. He was one of the few players who publicly called Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Oklahoma City to play for Golden State just months after the Warriors eliminated the Thunder, a “soft” move. Durant of course clapped back, and McCollum responded and … you got a hefty slab of NBA Twitter beef to work with. But when it comes to McCollum, there’s more to his use of social media than to just express himself or deliver his thoughts on whatever is in the news. A communications major at Lehigh, McCollum seems poised for a career in broadcast journalism whenever he’s done playing. And what he’s doing via social media is part of the plan. He isn’t coy about chiming in with his thoughts on other sports such as football (a Cleveland Browns fan, McCollum was not happy with them trading Josh Gordon to New England), or respond to fans critical of him or the Blazers' lack of postseason success.
And his reply to this tweet became Twitter gold, spawning a ton of re-tweets, a few memes and a new t-shirt!