Monday, November 30, 2009

NBA Stars Fined For Tweeting


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The NBA fined NBA stars--Phoenix forward Amar'e Stoudemire, Charlotte centerTyson Chandler and Boston forward Rasheed Wallace--last week and over the weekend for "in-game tweets" and criticism over officials.

The Celtics' vet, Wallace, was hit with a $30,000 fine on Friday (Nov. 27) after he criticized refs following the team's win over Toronto.

Both Stoudemire and Chandler received $7,500 fines each for posting messages on their respective Twitter accounts during their games on Wednesday (Nov. 25), a violation of NBA rules.

Tweets were posted on Stoudemire's account (
@amareisreal) during the Suns' win over Memphis, while Chandler updated his Twitter account (@Tysonchandler) during the Bobcats' victory over Toronto.

The league
revealed their move to block players from "tweeting" during games in September, after the microblogging site grew in popularity over the last year.

"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," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

"We just need to make sure when it's OK to tweet and when it's not OK to tweet, so it, at least, focuses around the game.

"It would look unusual for a guy sitting on the bench to pick up his cell phone, and I think we can agree that he probably shouldn't be writing e-mails. It's not about Twitter; it's about the line of communication. That's what we're focusing on," he continued.

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