NBA commissioner David Stern told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday the league will soon follow the NFL in announcing Twitter guidelines and other social media restrictions for its players and coaches.
“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.”
The NFL announced its own guidelines on Monday by restricting players, coaches and football operations personnel – or anyone representing them – from using social media networks like Twitter and Facebook from 90 minutes before kickoff to the end of traditional media interviews after games. NFL game officials are banned from using social media at all times.
Stern described the NBA’s guidelines as “nothing too serious.”
It's not surprising they'd do that and fair enough that they do. It seems like it's something that should be the prerogative of the individual teams but I suppose a league-wide policy saves them the trouble and treats everyone the same. I say relax it during All-Star Weekend, though.
