Peter Robert Casey - The interplay of basketball, social media, and marketing

NBA Schoolyard Rankings (Team/Positional): 2009/10

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Words: Brad Graham

Can it be that it was all so simple?

Short of actually waiting around until June 2010, there are literally dozens of ways to predetermine who should (and will) win the NBA title. When this particular hoops junkie started loving this Game (like the NBA’s theme song of ‘94 told me that I should), my eighth grade math skills were put to good use for the very first time, creating a simple and easy to follow formula (you simply rank each C, PF, SF, SG, PG, Sixth Man, Head Coach and Bench from 30 down to one, then add them all up) to determine the NBA’s best. Simple enough, right?

Having recently dusted off the cobwebs from this long forgotten gem, I spent the better part of the 2009/10 NBA season opener between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, speculating whether or not this over simplified equation could be applied to the 30 NBA teams of today (instead of the 27 that were ranked back in ’94). Why? Because box score calculations, positive / negative performances, and any number of exact science accumulations are emotionless formulas lacking understanding and that all important real world human-based response.

More so, they aren’t the complete truth anyway...and debate is always fun.

What’s interesting is determining who rules the NBA’s landscape by positional rank, which not only highlights positional match-ups and their weaknesses, but it’s a far more interesting recipe for determining projected NBA success.

With specific players (we’re looking at you, Yao) sidelined for the season, certain teams are obviously without their strongest core each night on the NBA hardwood. On that tip, let's consider the Houston Rockets. They could be ranked as highly as 2nd in the Centre standings, or as low as 27th, pending on their full-time starter. This alteration subsequently affects their bench ranking while simultaneously having the potential to elevate their Head Coach’s position, pending the team’s success of course. Plus, overall rankings may not be as adversely affected as one may think, given this basic system of addition rewards overall franchise strength, not muscle at a singular position (which explains how Cleveland and the Detroit Pistons ended up in their respective spots). Point being, it’s better to score average in all eight categories than to standout in a few, this time around.

With the 2009/10 season in its infancy, and my inability to let the thought go, it was time to see if the following 15 year old formula still held any universal truth. Is it accurate? Time to find out…

Note: following each Overall Team Ranking there are the respective positional (C, PF, SF, SG, PG, Sixth Man, Head Coach and Bench) placements as well as Conference and Division breakdowns. Enjoy.

OVERALL TEAM TOTALS.

(C + PF + SF + SG + PG + Sixth Man + Coach + Bench). Max: 240 pts. Min: 8 pts.

01. Los Angeles Lakers: 197
02. Boston Celtics: 178
03. Utah Jazz: 176
04. Dallas Mavericks: 168
05. Orlando Magic: 167
06. San Antonio Spurs: 164
07. Houston Rockets: 162
08. Denver Nuggets: 157
09. Portland Trail Blazers: 143
10. Washington Wizards: 142
11. New Orleans Hornets: 135
12. Atlanta Hawks: 132
13. Detroit Pistons: 126
14. Phoenix Suns: 124
15. Cleveland Cavaliers: 122
16. Toronto Raptors: 117
17. Philadelphia 76ers: 114
18. New York Knicks: 112
19. Miami Heat: 110
20. Chicago Bulls: 109
21. Memphis Grizzlies: 109
22. Los Angeles Clippers: 108
23. Charlotte Bobcats: 105
24 Milwaukee Bucks: 95
25. Indiana Pacers: 94
26. Golden State Warriors: 81
27. New Jersey Nets: 71
28. Sacramento Kings: 67
29. Oklahoma City Thunder: 60
30. Minnesota Timberwolves: 60

STARTING CENTERS.

01. Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) – 30pts.
02. Yao Ming (Houston Rockets) – 29pts.
03. Nene (Denver Nuggets) – 28pts.
04. Al Jefferson (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 27pts.
05. Shaquille O’Neal (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 26pts.
06. Mehmet Okur (Utah Jazz) – 25pts.
07. Tyson Chandler (Charlotte Bobcats) – 24pts.
08. Emeka Okafor (New Orleans Hornets) – 23pts.
09. Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee Bucks) – 22pts.
10. Andrea Bargnani (Toronto Raptors) – 21pts.
11. Jermaine O’Neal (Miami Heat) – 20pts.
12. Al Horford (Atlanta Hawks) – 19pts.
13. Chris Kaman (Los Angeles Clippers) – 18pts.
14. Andrew Bynum (Los Angeles Lakers) – 17pts.
15. Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies) – 16pts.
16. Ben Wallace (Detroit Pistons) – 15pts.
17. Greg Oden (Portland Trail Blazers) – 14pts.
18. Samuel Dalembert (Philadelphia 76ers) – 13pts.
19. Andris Beidrins (Golden State Warriors) – 12pts.
20. Eric Dampier (Dallas Mavericks) – 11pts.
21. Kendrick Perkins (Boston Celtics) – 10pts.
22. David Lee (New York Knicks) – 9pts.
23. Nenad Krstic (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 8pts.
24. Fabrico Oberto (Washington Wizrads) – 7pts.
25. Brook Lopez (New Jersey Nets) – 6pts.
26. Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls) – 5pts.
27. Roy Hibbert (Indiana Pacers) – 4pts.
28. Robin Lopez (Phoenix Suns) – 3pts.
29. Sean May (Sacramento Kings) – 2pts.
30. Matt Bonner (San Antonio Spurs) – 1pt.

STARTING POWER FORWARDS.

01. Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) – 30pts.
02. Kevin Garnett (Boston Celtics) – 29pts.
03. Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) – 28pts.
04. Amar’e Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns) – 27pts.
05. Pau Gasol (Los Angeles Lakers) – 26pts.
06. Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors) – 25pts.
07. David West (New Orleans Hornets) – 24pts.
08. Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz) – 23pts.
09. LaMarcus Aldridge (Portland Trail Blazers) – 22pts.
10. Elton Brand (Philadelphia 76ers) – 21pts.
11. Rashard Lewis (Orlando Magic) – 20pts.
12. Boris Diaw (Charlotte Bobcats) – 19pts.
13. Josh Smith (Atlanta Hawks) – 18pts.
14. Antawn Jamison (Washington Wizards) – 17pts.
15. Udonis Halsem (Miami Heat) – 16pts.
16. Luis Scola (Houston Rockets) – 15pts.
17. Troy Murphy (Indiana Pacers) – 14pts.
18. Zach Randolph (Memphis Grizzlies) – 13pts.
19. Kenyon Martin (Denver Nuggets) – 12pts.
20. Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers) – 11pts.
21. Jason Thompson (Sacramento Kings)– 10pts.
22. Anderson Varejao (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 9pts.
23. Tyrus Thomas (Chicago Bulls) – 8pts.
24. Jeff Green (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 7pts.
25. Hakim Warrick (Milwaukee Bucks) – 6pts.
26. Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 5pts.
27. Charlie Villanueva (Detroit Pistons) – 4pts.
28. Yi Jianlian (New Jersey Nets) – 3pts.
29. Ronny Turiaf (Golden State Warriors) – 2pts.
30. Jared Jeffries (New York Knicks) – 1pt.

STARTING SMALL FORWARDS.

01. LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 30pts.
02. Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) – 29pts.
03. Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics) – 28pts.
04. Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 27pts.
05. Caron Butler (Washington Wizards) – 26pts.
06. Danny Granger (Indiana Pacers) – 25pts.
07. Hedo Turkoglu (Toronto Raptors) – 24pts.
08. Shawn Marion (Dallas Mavericks) – 23pts.
09. Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) – 22pts.
10. Ron Artest (Los Angeles Lakers) – 21pts.
11. Gerald Wallace (Charlotte Bobcats) – 20pts.
12. Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies) – 19pts.
13. Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns) – 18pts.
14. Andrei Kirilenko (Utah Jazz) – 17pts.
15. Al Harrington (New York Knicks) – 16pts.
16. Stephen Jackson (Golden State Warriors) – 15pts.
17. Richard Jefferson (San Antonio Spurs) – 14pts.
18. Shane Battier (Houston Rockets) – 13pts.
19. Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls) – 12pts.
20. Michael Beasley (Miami Heat) – 11pts.
21. Thaddeus Young (Philadelphia 76ers) – 10pts.
22. Julian Wright (New Orleans Hornets) – 9pts.
23. Michel Peitrus (Orlando Magic) – 8pts.
24. Ryan Gomes (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 7pts.
25. Marvin Williams (Atlanta Hawks) – 6pts.
26. Francisco Garcia (Sacramento Kings) – 5pts.
27. Martell Webster (Portland Trail Blazers) – 4pts.
28. Carlos Delfino (Milwaukee Bucks) – 3pts.
29. Al Thorton (Los Angeles Clippers) – 2pts.
30. Chris Douglas-Roberts (New Jersey Nets) – 1pt.

STARTING SHOOTING GUARDS.

01. Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) – 30pts.
02. Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat) – 29pts.
03. Vince Carter (Orlando Magic) – 28pts.
04. Brandon Roy (Portland Trail Blazers)– 27pts.
05. Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks) – 26pts.
06. Tracy McGrady (Houston Rockets) – 25pts.
07. Ray Allen (Boston Celtics) – 24pts.
08. Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks) – 23pts.
09. Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers) – 22pts.
10. Richard Hamilton (Detroit Pistons) – 21pts.
11. Josh Howard (Dallas Mavericks) – 20pts.
12. Kevin Martin (Sacramento Kings) – 19pts.
13. Mike Miller (Washington Wizards) – 18pts.
14. John Salmons (Chicago Bulls) – 17pts.
15. Raja Bell (Charlotte Bobcats) – 16pts.
16. JR Smith (Denver Nuggets) – 15pts.
17. OJ Mayo (Memphis Grizzlies) – 14pts.
18. Jason Richardson (Phoenix Suns) – 13pts.
19. Wilson Chandler (New York Knicks) – 12pts.
20. Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers) – 11pts.
21. Michael Finley (San Antonio Spurs) – 10pts.
22. Ronnie Brewer (Utah Jazz) – 9pts.
23. Anthony Parker (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 8pts.
24. Mike Dunleavy (Indiana Pacers) – 7pts.
25. DeMarr DeRozen (Toronto Raptors) – 6pts.
26. Morris Peterson (New Orleans Hornets) – 5pts.
27. Thabo Sefolosha (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 4pts.
28. Corey Brewer (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 3pts.
29. Courtney Lee (New Jersey Nets) – 2pts.
30. Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) – 1pt.

STARTING POINT GUARDS.

01. Chris Paul (New Orleans Hornets) – 30pts.
02. Deron Williams (Utah Jazz) – 29pts.
03. Chauncey Billups (Denver Nuggets) – 28pts.
04. Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) – 27pts.
05. Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs) – 26pts.
06. Gilbert Arenas (Washington Wizards) – 25pts.
07. Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls) – 24pts.
08. Devin Harris (New Jersey Nets) – 23pts.
09. Baron Davis (Los Angeles Clippers) – 22pts.
10. Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks) – 21pts.
11. Mo Williams (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 20pts.
12. Jameer Nelson (Orlando Magic) – 19pts.
13. Derek Fisher (Los Angeles Laskers) – 18pts.
14. Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics) – 17pts.
15. Mike Bibby (Atlanta Hawks) – 16pts.
16. Jose Calderon (Toronto Raptors) – 15pts.
17. TJ Ford (Indiana Pacers) – 14pts.
18. Monta Ellis (Golden State Warriors) – 13pts.
19. Rodney Stuckey (Detroit Pistons) – 12pts.
20. Chris Duhon (New York Knicks) – 11pts.
21. Mike Conley (Memphis Grizzlies) – 10pts.
22. Tyreke Evans (Sacramento Kings) – 9pts.
23. Jonny Flynn (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 8pts.
24. Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee Bucks) – 7pts.
25. Mario Chalmers (Miami Heat) – 6pts
26. Raymond Felton (Charlotte Bobcats) – 5pts.
27. Aaron Brooks (Houston Rockets) – 4pts.
28. Steve Blake (Portland Trail Blazers – 3pts.
29. Lou Williams (Philadelphia 76ers) – 2pts.
30. Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 1pt.

SIXTH MEN.

01. Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs) – 30pts.
02. Allen Iverson (Memphis Grizzlies) – 29pts.
03. Rasheed Wallace (Boston Celtics) – 28pts.
04. Lamar Odom (Los Angeles Laskers) – 27pts.
05. Jason Terry (Dallas Mavericks) – 26pts.
06. Ben Gordon (Detroit Pistons) – 25pts.
07. Paul Millsap (Utah Jazz) – 24pts.
08. Marcus Camby (Los Angeles Clippers) – 23pts.
09. Trevor Ariza (Houston Rockets) – 22pts.
10. Andre Miller (Portland Trail Blazers) – 21pts.
11. Brad Miller (Chicago Bulls) – 20pts.
12. Rafer Alston (New Jersey Nets) – 19pts.
13. Leandro Barbosa (Phoenix Suns) – 18pts.
14. James Posey (New Orleans Hornets) – 17pts.
15. Jamal Crawford (Atlanta Hawks) – 16pts.
16. Randy Foye (Washington Wizards) – 15pts.
17. Nate Robinson (New York Knicks) – 14pts.
18. Andres Nocioni (Sacramento Kings) – 13pts.
19. Marreese Speights (Philadelphia 76ers) – 12pts.
20. Delonte West (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 11pts.
21. Corey Maggette (Golden State Warriors) – 10pts.
22. Charlie Bell (Milwaukee Bucks) – 9pts.
23. Chris Andersen (Denver Nuggets) – 8pts.
24. Brandon Bass (Orlando Magic) – 7pts.
25. Jarrett Jack (Toronto Raptors) – 6pts.
26. DJ Augustin (Charlotte Bobcats) – 5pts.
27. James Harden (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 4pts.
28. Quentin Richardson (Miami Heat) – 3pts.
29. Dahntay Jones (Indiana Pacers) – 2pts.
30. Damien Wilkins (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 1pt.

COACHES.

01. Phil Jackson (Los Angeles Lakers) – 30pts.
02. Jerry Sloan (Utah Jazz) – 29pts.
03. Greg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs) – 28pts.
04. Rick Adelman (Houston Rockets) – 27pts.
05. Stan Van Gundy (Orlando Magic) – 26pts.
06. Mike D’Antoni (New York Knicks) – 25pts.
07. Larry Brown (Charlotte Bobcats) – 24pts.
08. Flip Saunders (Washington Wizards) – 23pts.
09. Nate McMillian (Portland Trail Blazers) – 22pts.
10. George Karl (Denver Nuggets) – 21pts.
11. Doc Rivers (Boston Celtics) – 20pts.
12. Eddie Jordan (Philadelphia 76ers) – 19pts.
13. Don Nelson (Golden State Warriors) – 18pts.
14. Scott Skiles (Milwaukee Bucks) – 17pts.
15. Rick Carlisle (Dallas Mavericks) – 16pts.
16. Lawrence Frank (New Jersey Nets) – 15pts.
17. Bryon Scott (New Orleans Hornets) – 14pts.
18. Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat) – 13pts.
19. Alvin Gentry (Phoenix Suns) – 12pts.
20. Jim O’Brien (Indiana Pacers) – 11pts.
21. Mike Woodson (Atlanta Hawks) – 10pts.
22. Mike Brown (Cleveland Cavaliers) – 9pts.
23. Paul Westphal (Sacramento Kings) – 8pts.
24. Mike Dunleavy (Los Angeles Clippers) – 7pts.
25. Scott Brooks (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 6pts.
26. Kurt Rambis (Minnesota Timberwolves) – 5pts.
27. Vinny Del Negro (Chicago Bulls) – 4pts.
28. Lionel Hollins (Memphis Grizzlies) – 3pts.
29. Jay Triano (Toronto Raptors) – 2pts.
30. John Kuester (Detroit Pistons) – 1pt.

BENCHES.

01. Portland Trail Blazers – 30pts.
02. Orlando Magic – 29pts.
03. Los Angeles Lakers – 28pts.
04. Houston Rockets – 27pts.
05. Detroit Pistons – 26pts.
06. San Antonio Spurs – 25pts.
07. New York Knicks – 24pts.
08. Dallas Mavericks – 23pts.
09. Boston Celtics – 22pts.
10. Atlanta Hawks – 21pts.
11. Utah Jazz – 20pts.
12. Chicago Bulls – 19pts.
13. Toronto Raptors – 18pts.
14. Indiana Pacers – 17pts.
15. Denver Nuggets – 16pts.
16. Philadelphia 76ers – 15pts.
17. Los Angeles Clippers – 14pts.
18. New Orleans Hornets – 13pts.
19. Miami Heat – 12pts.
20. Washington Wizards – 11pts.
21. Golden State Warriors – 10pts.
22. Cleveland Cavaliers – 9pts.
23. Milwaukee Bucks – 8pts.
24. Charlotte Bobcats – 7pts.
25. Phoenix Suns – 6pts.
26. Memphis Grizzlies – 5pts.
27. Minnesota Timberwolves – 4pts.
28. Oklahoma City Thunder – 3pts.
29. New Jersey Nets – 2pts.
30. Sacramento Kings – 1pt.

BY CONFERENCE.

EAST.

Boston Celtics: 178
Orlando Magic: 167
Washington Wizards: 142
Atlanta Hawks: 132
Detroit Pistons: 126
Cleveland Cavaliers: 122
Toronto Raptors: 117
Philadelphia 76ers: 114
New York Knicks: 112
Miami Heat: 110
Chicago Bulls: 109
Charlotte Bobcats: 105
Milwaukee Bucks: 95
Indiana Pacers: 94
New Jersey Nets: 71

WEST.

Los Angeles Lakers: 197
Utah Jazz: 176
Dallas Mavericks: 168
San Antonio Spurs: 164
Houston Rockets: 162
Denver Nuggets: 157
Portland Trail Blazers: 143
New Orleans Hornets: 135
Phoenix Suns: 124
Memphis Grizzlies: 109
Los Angeles Clippers: 108
Golden State Warriors: 81
Sacramento Kings: 67
Oklahoma City Thunder: 60
Minnesota Timberwolves: 60

BY DIVISION.

SOUTHEAST.

Orlando Magic: 167
Washington Wizards: 142
Atlanta Hawks: 132
Miami Heat: 110
Charlotte Bobcats: 105

ATLANTIC.

Boston Celtics: 178
Toronto Raptors: 117
Philadelphia 76ers: 114
New York Knicks: 112
New Jersey Nets: 71

CENTRAL.

Detroit Pistons: 126
Cleveland Cavaliers: 122
Chicago Bulls: 109
Milwaukee Bucks: 95
Indiana Pacers: 94

PACIFIC.

Los Angeles Lakers: 197
Phoenix Suns: 124
Los Angeles Clippers: 108
Golden State Warriors: 81
Sacramento Kings: 67

MIDWEST.

Dallas Mavericks: 168
San Antonio Spurs: 164
Houston Rockets: 162
New Orleans Hornets: 135
Memphis Grizzlies: 109

NORTHWEST.

Utah Jazz: 176
Denver Nuggets: 157
Portland Trail Blazers: 143
Oklahoma City Thunder: 60
Minnesota Timberwolves: 60

Q+A with Director of Ty Lawson's New Docu-Series, Brandon Kraines

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Brandon Kraines, owner of Stereo Lab Films and director of Ty Lawson’s docu-series, “The CrossOver,” is a busy, but patient man. He held his five-week old child - who was as patient as a five week old could be - throughout our entire conversation.

The Tulane University graduate is a budding young Los Angeles-based director with a far-reaching body of work. In 2007, he won the Gold ADDY and Best of Show Award at the American Advertising Federation’s annual competition for his hilarious Suave Shampoo spot “Catch.” He also took home a Silver ADDY for his Bud Light spot “Ladies Room.”

After partnering up with ibeatyou.com, Brandon has directed and wrote some of their most watched viral content, including overnight web sensation “Step Brothers” starring NBA superstars Steve Nash and Baron Davis.

Brandon recently wrapped up his documentary, “The CrossOver”, which offers a look into Ty Lawson’s journey from the NCAA championship to the NBA. Stereo Lab Films is now currently seeking distribution for “The CrossOver." Please send emails to info@stereolabfilms.com for general information about the project and future viewing details.

Brandon was kind enough to lend his time to answer some questions about the series, and the intersection of social media and basketball. Below is a transcript of the discussion.

This interview was conducted by Jon Thompson, a recent UNC grad with a pure passion for basketball and all things social media. Of course, he tweets.

Jon: You’re best known for your work in the comedy genre. How did you end up directing a basketball related docu-series?

Brandon: I actually had a chance to work with Baron Davis and Steve Nash on a project for ibeatyou.com and that was my segway into the sports arena. I went to high school with Baron, whose early interest in sports films rubbed off on me. Now, we both own production companies. We’re a one-stop shop at my place, Stereo Lab Films. We do everything from pre-production to the actual filming, the writing, and then the editing. So we handle all areas of production. Ty Lawson was brought to me by Chris Feil, also of Stereo Lab Films.

Jon: Did you know a lot about Ty before being introduced to this project? If not, how did you go about your research?

Brandon: I actually didn’t know about Ty until I watched the tournament this year. I’m more of a pro basketball fan and not a college basketball fan really (laughs). College basketball is not as big on the west coast. But I knew who Ty was before I met him because I followed the tournament. I follow it every year.

Jon: We’ve seen many documentaries on NBA rookies in the past. What makes “The CrossOver” different?

Brandon: I’ve seen Mike Beasley’s documentary. This documentary shows more on the inside, things that you usually don’t see or even think about. It’s not only about Ty and what he’s going through as far as the actual process of entering the NBA draft, but it shows what’s beyond basketball. We meet his agent Jeff Fried and he explains the business of basketball to us and how you only schedule workouts with certain teams; for example, Ty wouldn’t work out for the Clippers because they’re obviously selecting Blake Griffin. He’s only going to work out with teams in the 8-20 area. Ty also has to deal with the relentless media, and questions like “Is Ty too short?;" “Will he be able to run an offense in a half court system?”

Jon: The impact of social media on marketing is growing at an astronomical rate. How have you used social media to promote your past projects and how are you using social media to promote this series?

Brandon: For past projects I’ve pretty much done the same thing. We’ve marketed our work online in all of the appropriate places such as YouTube and DimeMag.com. Also, people are passing it around and seeing it. We’re still in the beginning stages; we only started circulating it online last week. A lot of people like yourself are reaching out to us. People that don’t know Ty just want to help with this part of the ride. They’re seeing it on the UNC sites and all the blogs, and this is definitely making more of an impact than anything that I’ve done on the internet so far. We're connecting with fans on Facebook, MySpace, the official website of Ty’s series, and the official website of my company.

Jon: We all know Ty Lawson is a great basketball player, and from the times I saw him off the court when I attended UNC, he seemed like a nice person. What was it like working with Ty?

Brandon: He’s a cool, laid back guy and he’s open to a lot of ideas. Ty's a real go-with-the-flow kind of person. He's a very appreciative man and he thinks he made the right decision by playing out his junior year before declaring for the draft; his coach and parents agree. To be honest, that’s as high as his stock was going to go. He won it all, and he was the ACC Player of the Year; I think he made all the right decisions regarding his college career.

Jon: What are some of Ty’s thoughts coming into his rookie season. How does he see his role with the Denver Nuggets?

Brandon: We haven't talked much about his role with the Nuggets, but from what I’ve gathered, he’s really excited to be playing behind Chauncey Billups. He said it couldn’t have worked out better because he’s learning from the best. He’s excited to be playing for a team that’s playoff bound and he expects to learn a lot.

Jon: I know Ty has a Twitter account. How often did you see him tweeting on his phone? What other forms of social media did you see him use?

Brandon: He tweets a lot. I’ve seen him on Facebook before, too. He’s definitely on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) all the time. He's tough to get a hold of, but texting and BBM is the way to go.

Jon: One last question. Any thoughts on where all of this (social media) is headed?

Brandon: I think social media is the future. It’s forever changing and evolving and we can expect the unexpected. Someone is always coming out with the next 'new' thing. Commercials on TV are starting to show advertisements for social media channels and that’s where the eyeballs are--so I think you’re going to start seeing a lot more commercials on the web.

Jon: Well, thanks for you time today. I appreciate it and good luck with the series.

Brandon: No problem. Thank you.

Poll: Which NBA Player Would You Most Like To See In The Twitterverse?

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Which NBA player would you most like to see in the Twitterverse?(surveys)

Graduating to Toddlerhood: It's Still About Relationships

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:09:00 +0000

This past Monday, October 26th, my blog turned one year old.

Skip the cake, candles, and frivolous Facebook gifts. Forget the lists of 365 tips, tricks, and benefits to blogging. There's only one real reason you, too, should get in the game.

Relationships.

That's correct. The freebies, exposure, and potential revenue streams are all accessories to building powerful real-world relationships with like-minded and like-hearted individuals. A blog is essentially a networking platform that allows you to create and share valuable, purposeful content around your passion.

Passion + Purpose + Relationships = Opportunities (but they come later)

Nobody, outside of fly-by-night internet marketers, will tell you it's easy. It's surely not. However, blogging can be very rewarding and can lead to a range of real world professional opportunities that you may have not thought were possible.

You will have to give and give and give to your niche community. And be prepared for many late or sleepless nights. But, if you're patient and you hustle, and you have the chops (3 of Gary Vaynerchuk's principles), blogging (vlogging or podcasting) will be one of the best decisions you ever made.

Hands down.

Now, before you get defensive and put your hands up (i.e. make excuses), give it a shot. Twitter may be fast; LinkedIn may be your new resume; and Facebook may be the most widely-used service, but blogging is still the Mac Daddy of exchanging knowledge, resources, and building productive relationships.

So what do you think?

Here's a peek back at my initial post.

Who Will Take The NBA Twitter Crown This Season?

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Life is good. I'm on vacation in sunny Florida, and the NBA season is set to tip-off tonight. With that, my colleague Jon Thompson fired over a list of NBA team rankings based on Twitter followers. Thanks, Jon, for stepping up while I'm mostly away from the computer this week!

Before social media purists get their panties in a bunch, we both recognize that the quantity of followers is nowhere near as important as the quality of conversation, community participation, and influence. This is just a fun experiment.

Without further ado, here are the rankings (Division/Conference/League).

Who will win the "Follower" title this season?

EASTERN CONFERENCE

ATLANTIC

1 / 4 / 5 Boston Celtics - http://twitter.com/celtics (20,210)

2 / 5 / 12 New York Knicks - http://twitter.com/thenyknicks (11,492)

3 / 7 / 15 Philadelphia 76ers - http://twitter.com/sixers (9,814)

4 / 14 / 28 New Jersey Nets - http://twitter.com/NetsBasketball (3,803)

5/ 15 / 30 Toronto Raptors - http://twitter.com/raptors (2,126)

CENTRAL

1 / 2 / 3 Cleveland Cavaliers - http://twitter.com/cavs (26,360)

2 / 3 / 4 Chicago Bulls - http://twitter.com/Chicagobulls (21,856)

3 / 8/ 19 Detroit Pistons - http://twitter.com/DETPistons (8,193)

4 / 10 / 22 Indiana Pacers - http://twitter.com/IndianaPacers (5,712)

5 / 11 / 25 Milwaukee Bucks - http://twitter.com/bucks (5,299)

SOUTHEAST

1 / 1 / 2 Orlando Magic - http://twitter.com/Orlando_magic (779,858)

2 / 6 / 13 Miami Heat - http://twitter.com/MHEAT (11,373)

3 / 9 / 21 Atlanta Hawks - http://twitter.com/atlanta_hawks (5,789)

4 / 12 / 26 Washington Wizards - http://twitter.com/washWizards (5,084)

5 / 13 / 27 Charlotte Bobcats - http://twitter.com/Gobobcats (4,438)

WESTERN CONFERENCE

PACIFIC

1 / 1 / 1 L.A. Lakers - http://twitter.com/LAKERS (1,183,016)

2 / 2 / 6 Phoenix Suns - http://twitter.com/PhoenixSuns (18,399)

3 / 7 / 11 L.A. Clippers - http://twitter.com/MYCLIPPERNATION (12,219)

4 / 10 / 17 Sacramento Kings - http://twitter.com/sacramentokings (8,243)

5 / 15 / 29 Golden State Warriors - http://twitter.com/WARRIORS (2,183)

SOUTHWEST

1 / 3 / 7 Houston Rockets - http://twitter.com/HoustonRockets (17,196)

2 / 4 / 8 San Antonio Spurs - http://twitter.com/SPURS (16,766)

3 / 5 / 9 Dallas Mavericks - http://twitter.com/dallasmavs (12,924)

4 / 11 / 20 New Orleans Hornets - http://twitter.com/hornetsdotcom (7,023)

5 / 14 / 24 Memphis Grizzlies - http://twitter.com/memgrizz (5,565)

NORTHWEST

1 / 6 / 10 Portland Trailblazers - http://twitter.com/pdxTrailBlazers (12,494)

2 / 8 / 14 Denver Nuggets - http://twitter.com/DenverNuggets (11,230)

3 / 9 / 16 Utah Jazz - http://twitter.com/Utah_Jazz (9,717)

4 / 12 / 21 Oklahoma City Thunder - http://twitter.com/OKCThunder (6,496)

5 / 13 / 23 Minnesota Timberwolves - http://twitter.com/MNTimberwolves (5,628)

UNC Recruits Marketing Affiliates Much Like They Do Players

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:57:00 +0000

The following is a guest post from Jon Thompson...but "not the John Thompson you're thinking of." Jon is a UNC graduate ('08) with a Bachelor's degree in Management and Psychology. The born and bred Tar Heels fan most recently worked at Toshiba and plans to teach English in South Korea this coming February. Until then, you can find him right here talking hoops, social media, and marketing. Please welcome Jon and share your feedback in the comments section below. He also invites you to connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is a perennial leader in academic rankings, basketball recruiting, and merchandise sales.

What is the secret to UNC's success?

It’s simple. Only invite people into the Carolina family who have the potential to make UNC an even more prestigious and respected school.

You can be the most talented player in the country, but if your attitude and reputation doesn’t fit the Carolina Way, there’s no way the relationship will work. Most people agree that John Wall, Kentucky’s freshman point guard, is the most talented player in the country, but his reported attitude issues, along with his breaking and entering charge in May, halted Roy Williams' pursuit of Wall.

People were upset by Roy’s decision, but how are you going to question a man who has won two national championships since coming back to his Alma Mater in 2003?

Let’s go back to the 2004-2005 season.

Jameson Curry was one of the best scorers in high school basketball and set the all-time North Carolina high school scoring record with 3,307 points, averaging 40.2 points per game. UNC was excited about the homegrown talent coming in the fall, but in April 2004, Curry was arrested for his involvement in a drug raid, after which his scholarship was immediately rescinded. Without Curry, UNC went on to win the 2005 national championship. That recruiting class also included J.R. Smith before he declared for the NBA draft. I think Marvin Williams did a great job representing the freshman class that year.

This philosophy has led to UNC forming partnerships with some of the most successful companies in the world, making UNC one of the most marketable and recognizable brands in all of sports. Let’s takes a look:

NIKE

UNC and Nike have had a long-standing relationship that won’t end anytime soon. There are 9 more years left on the 10 year contract that started in 2008. The contract is worth $37.7 million. MJ played for and won a national championship at UNC and went on to become the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), so this powerhouse duo makes sense. Don’t expect this relationship to dissolve after 2018, either.

There were only about 250 of these limited edition shoes made and they were given away to UNC students who were camping out at the Dean Dome for Senior Night in 2008.

GATORADE

With the success of the new “G” campaign, this power duo can only get stronger. People don’t realize how big of a deal brand representation is, and the legal repercussions associated with it. I know I didn’t until watching a Cleveland Cavaliers game a few years ago. LeBron James had to put tape on his Gatorade cup because he was the spokesperson for Powerade.

Once again, having MJ as alum doesn’t hurt. This is a limited edition MJ Gatorade collection that was very hard to find. Trust me, I’ve been to almost every Gatorade vendor in Charlotte. I have tasted the Championship Red flavor out of this series and let me tell you, it was berrylicious.

COCA-COLA

This is a more subtle, classic relationship; hence, Coca-Cola Classic. Coke likes putting the UNC logo on their products and when they do, it’s a rare item to find. Not bad being affiliated with the most recognized brand in the world. Here are some examples:
I was a freshman at UNC in 2005 when we won the national championship, so I have some great memorabilia. A couple of months after winning the 2009 national championship, I went to historic Merritt’s Store & Grill in Chapel Hill (known for their world famous BLTs) and luckily found this 6 pack of limited edition Coca-Cola cans:

And let's not forget how much Roy Williams likes Coca-Cola…

WACHOVIA

Before the series of bank failures, Wachovia was at the top of the industry in the South, and was the fourth largest bank in the United States. With its headquarters in Charlotte and a UNC alum installed as CEO at the time, it made it easy to form a partnership with Wachovia. Let’s see what happens to this relationship when the Wells Fargo merger is complete in March 2010.

As a student you have the option to make your Student ID card a Wachovia debit card.

VERIZON

This is one of the more recent relationships and what better phone company to be affiliated with at the time than Verizon. With AT&T struggling, its only a matter of time before people are participating in the social media scene through their iPhone on the Verizon network. This can only lead to increased social media traffic amongst Carolina fans and the college basketball world. And if I remember correctly, when I started my freshman year, UNC had a partnership with Cingular, now AT&T. Somebody did their market research.

UNC’s resume includes many other partnerships with leading companies that set benchmarks in their respective industries. Nike, Gatorade, and Coca-Cola are all heavily involved in high school basketball recruiting and sponsor basketball camps and all star games; so being associated with these 3 brands can only improve the recruiting aspect of Carolina basketball.

This year will be Carolina basketball’s 100th anniversary and for 100 years there’s been one objective. Not only win, but win strategically.

7 Social Media Sites for Sports Fans

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:46:00 +0000

The following is a guest blog post from M.E. Ward, who writes regularly about online sports management degrees.

Social media sites are all the rage right now. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are popular among all age groups, ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. But, the fastest growing area of social media sites are activity-specific sites, where people who share common interests come together to "meet," discuss topics related to their activity and read pertinent news. If you’re a sports fan, be sure to enjoy social media sites dedicated to the sport you love.

Here are 7 that I recommend:

1. NHL Connect – This is the official fan site for the NHL. Keep up with all NHL news, standings, and stats; includes blogs, groups and message boards.
2. Rodeo Up – RodeoUP.com is the #1 site to watch PRCA ProRodeo videos and to post your own rodeo videos.
3. FanVoice – The official fan site of the NBA. Connect with fans and make your voice heard. This is a great site to watch during the NBA Draft. You’ll get all the Draft news here first.
4. FanNation – Sponsored by Sports Illustrated/CNN, this site offers news and rumors from all sports, niche communities, blogs, message boards, and fantasy challenges.
5. Fanspot - Boast about your favorite team or athlete; connect with other fans of your favorite team or athlete; make and challenge rivals of your favorite team; join groups; participate in forums; create a blog to share your thoughts and sports experiences; show off your autographs, collectibles, memorabilia, game photos, etc.
6. FreeTheFan – An arena for you to debate the hottest sports headlines, win prizes and watch the best sports video online. You’ll find a lot of arm chair quarterbacking going on here.
7. Fanzak – Founded in honor of the fan to feed their insatiable hunger for trivial sports information. This is a great site if you like to rant about sports or read the rants of others.

These are just a few of the many sports enthusiast social media sites out there, and new ones are being built every day. It’s a great way for fans and content creators to connect, keep up with news and share their opinions.

My main man, Jason Peck - a well-recognized blogger who covers sports, social media, sponsorship, and marketing - also composed an exhaustive list a couple of years ago. You can check it out here.

What other sites do you visit that feed your social sports fancy?

Q+A with Phoenix Suns VP of Digital, Jeramie McPeek

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Jeramie McPeek, VP of Digital for the Phoenix Suns is accessible, knowledgeable, and extremely amicable. He's also a very busy dude. Don't believe me? Just check out his bio and workload description from the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC.

"Entering his 18th season with the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns this fall, Jeramie leads the organization’s digital and social media efforts. Under his direction, Suns.com has twice been named the top team site in the NBA and received the Website of the Year Award from the NBA in 2007. In his role as vice president of digital for the Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, McPeek oversees eight in-house websites, as well as the Suns' social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.

In addition to his position with the Suns, McPeek is the "editor at large" for the NBA's official publications and has had nearly a thousand articles published in national magazines over the last 14 years."

Naturally, McPeek loves his work and was kind enough to lend his time for some Q+As about the intersection of social media and the NBA. Below is a transcript of the discussion. You can follow Jeramie McPeek on Twitter: @SunsWebmaster

PRC: You wear at least two hats: Webmaster and VP of Digital for the Phoenix Suns, and Editor-at-Large for HOOP Magazine. Which came first, the chicken (Suns) or the egg (HOOP)? How does your editorial work complement the success you've achieved in your role as webmaster and VP of Digital?

Jeramie: If the Suns represent the chicken, then they arrived before the egg. A huge Suns fan as a teenager, I took a job at our team shop back in 1992, selling Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson jerseys at the local mall. I was a 20-year-old studying journalism at Arizona State University at the time and just wanted to get my foot in the door with the Suns, in hopes that I could work for them full-time someday. The following NBA season, I added an internship with the team’s basketball communications department, and was soon writing for the team's official magazine, Fastbreak, as well. I was hired full-time as a publications manager shortly after graduating from ASU in late 1995.

Earlier that same year, Phoenix hosted the 1995 NBA All-Star Weekend, where I got a chance to meet the editors of SLAM, which was only a couple issues old at the time. I loved the unique style of the magazine, both in the editorial and design, and basically begged the editors to let me write for them. I think they took pity on me and gave me a small article, which I wrote and re-wrote about a dozen times before submitting it. Thankfully they liked it and gave me more articles, and within a couple years I was one of their lead writers.

During the summer of 2000, my editor and managing editor left SLAM to go to work for the NBA, taking over HOOP, NBA Inside Stuff and the league's official game programs for All-Star and the NBA Finals. So I joined them and have been writing for the NBA’s publications ever since.

I would say that my two positions really complement each other nicely. Working for the Suns obviously gives me access to all of our games, which gives me an opportunity to interview players and coaches from around the league, whenever they come into Phoenix. But I’ve also been able to make some great connections with other communications teams around the NBA, which helps in terms of schedule phone interviews, as well.

On the other side of the court, writing for HOOP in my spare time keeps me well informed about the other teams and players around the league, and keeps my writing skills sharp, as I don’t get a chance to write for the Suns’ website or print publications nearly as often as I would like.
PRC: The Phoenix Suns are often regarded as one of the most progressive and successful NBA team properties when it comes to leveraging digital media. What's in store for 2009-2010?

Jeramie: We’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up this season, including some new online promotions in which fans can win tickets, party suites or even a trip to the playoffs. Yes, I’m predicting the Suns will be back in the playoffs this year! We’re going to be refreshing our virtual tour website, SunsLockerRoom.com, next month and launching an entirely new Suns Dancers section, which is always popular with our fans.

In terms of social media, our big focus is tying Twitter into our games. So not only will fans be able to follow the latest Tweets about the Suns via our website, but we’ll be displaying live Twitter streams on the big screens inside US Airways Center at different points during the game, and along the bottom of the TV screen at a couple points during our broadcasts on Fox Sports Arizona. So the goal is really to promote our own Twitter initiatives, while making our games more interactive for our fans.

PRC: Describe the working relationship that the NBA League Office has with the Suns' digital media initiatives. Do they play an advisory role, or do they extend full autonomy to the teams' leadership in this area? Or a mix of both?

Jeramie: I would say it’s a healthy mix of both. All of the teams’ sites are hosted by Turner Sports, which as of a year ago now manages NBA Digital, and we use the league’s content management system. The NBA also provides live stats, box scores, photos and game highlights, among other things, and the league’s creative services department assists teams in the basic design of their sites. So for the most part, the league serves in a support role to benefit the teams, which have control of the creative, editorial content and promotions that are featured on their sites.

PRC: We've seen the benefits and misfortunes of NBA players checking into the social media game. Talk about some of the pros and cons, from your perspective, about having your team's players interacting directly with fans online?

Jeramie: Well, obviously, the big pro is that direct interaction or communication with fans. Before social media, the only real online interaction fans had with their favorite players were the occasional online chats or mailboxes. Now fans can hear from those players throughout the day and week, and learn a lot more about their lives off the court, and ask them questions directly. So I think it really creates a stronger bond for fans, who feel like they get to know players on a more personal level.

Steve Nash is the perfect example. In the past, he used to “go dormant” during the off-season, and fans wouldn’t hear a whole lot about him, outside of a charity event or two that he was involved with. This summer, though, fans got to read about @The_Real_Nash’s trips to Hawaii and Europe, hear about his lunch with Carlos Santana and his tennis matches with his father. They found out that he was filming an episode for HBO’s Entourage, and heard about some of his favorite books. And then, of course, there were his viral videos on YouTube and his blogs on Facebook. So even though Steve is a huge star, fans got a much broader picture of who he really is as a person and what his day-to-day life is like.

And then, of course, there are players like the Suns’ Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619). Jared earned the appreciation of Phoenix fans with his hard work and hustle last season, but is going to be a much bigger fan favorite this year because of his constant interaction with his fans. This guy is on Twitter around the clock, and answers dozens of fan @replies daily. Once again, fans now have a much stronger connection with him because they know what he’s about, what his interests and hobbies are, and they can feel his appreciation for them, as well.

In terms of the cons, I think those are pretty obvious, as well. There have been players who have posted things on Twitter that they shouldn’t have, and incidents quickly become big stories. There’s always that risk that a player, or for that matter any employee who is representing your team or organization in social media, is going to say something that could be controversial.

PRC: What advice would you give to a Suns player that just signed up for a Twitter account? Which NBA player, outside of the Suns, do you enjoy following the most?

Jeramie: The biggest pieces of advice that I would give are to:

1) Interact: Twitter should not be a one-way communication. Don’t just broadcast information about yourself. Reply to your followers comments as often as possible to let them know that you’re seeing their @replies and that you value their support.

2) Use common sense: Athletes and celebrities need to remember that anything they Tweet out could end up in the newspaper the next day, so they need to be careful with their choice of words.

3) Have fun: I like to see athletes send frequent updates, but they should be interesting or funny anecdotes and observations whenever possible. Fans get tired of reading “just finished practice. Time for a nap” tweets after a while. Give the fans something more, and send them pics, too!

In terms of an NBA player outside of the Suns that I enjoy, I’d have to say Dwight Howard. He really gets it. He’s posting TwitPics and TwitVids, having contests for prizes, replying to fans, and just keeping his followers up to date with what he’s doing. He’s clearly one of the best in the NBA at the whole social media thing.

Listing out the Basketball Community on Twitter

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:07:00 +0000

The bird is out of the bag.

Twitter's "Lists" feature, which was announced last month on the company's blog, has been secretly rolled out to a select group of Beta testers for requested feedback....only the secret was spoiled the second the Twitterati started tweeting about it.

Anyway, that's old news; so why is this important?

Twitter's Lists feature will allow you to categorize some or all of the people you follow into streamlined feeds. Furthermore, you can:

- Add or delete members from your lists
- Name and rename your lists, and
- Subscribe to any lists that you deem interesting, which will add it to your home page

For example, let's say you wanted to follow all current NBA players and teams that are active on Twitter in one fell swoop. How would you do it?

Just follow the list; one click, baby: http://twitter.com/Peter_R_Casey/nba-players-on-twitter

If the hyperlink doesn't work for you now, don't fret...it soon will. Twitter plans on rolling out the feature to all users in the very near future.

I'm anticipating all sorts of basketball-related lists, from the hyperfocused categories of players, coaches, strength and conditioning professionals, scouts, bloggers, journalists referees, pro, college, high school, streetball, etc. - to the hypofocused: basketball, or basketball community members.

Twitter lists will help you find other interesting people in the basketball community that you didn't know were on Twitter...but the coolness doesn't end there.

If you want to know which lists include you in it, simply click on the word listed under your bio.

Robert Scoble believes this feature spells the demise of Follow Friday and directories based on followers. Others think Lists will create a new authority system similar to Google's Page Rank.

Bottom line? You will have to manage more lists. Your number of followers will become much less important. And you will end up following more people.

What kind of lists, if any, will you come up with?

How Jalen Rose Crushes It Online...And How You Can, Too

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Jalen Rose may have hung up his high tops, but the former NBA point guard and current ESPN/ABC studio analyst is crushing it on the web.

How?

Well, first, Jalen wisely chose to align himself with quality advisors that have experience and cachet in the social media space: Vaynermedia (Think Gary, AJ, Sam Taggart and company).

Second, it never hurt that Jalen spent many years in the spotlight; initially, with Michigan's Fab Five, then with a half-dozen NBA franchises, and now with ESPN/ABC.

I can hear you now: "That's great, but I don't have enough money to hire a reputable brand consulting agency, and the closest I've ever been to the NBA was third tier nose-bleeders at my local team's arena."

I get it, and I respect that.

However, you don't need to be a smooth southpaw playmaker or have a powerhouse agency in your corner (though I would recommend Vaynermedia if you do have a budget) to build a strong brand.

Where Jalen Rose separates himself from most - and where you can, too - is that his personal brand includes three important features:

Clarity
Consistency
Constancy

Clarity refers to how "clearly" one states their brand's promise. Consistency is a "function of not detracting or wavering from your brand's unique value proposition." And Constancy means always being visible to your target audience.

Let's take a look at how Jalen Rose tackles (excuse the football metaphor, it's Saturday) all three elements.

Clarity: You don't have to turn on ESPN or ABC to know Jalen's a studio analyst or loves talking about a variety of topics in front of the camera. Just check out his blog, Twitter feed, Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, or soon-to-be leveraged USTREAM account. Also, if you read any of Jalen's bio pages or tune into his lifestream, you know the man's serious about basketball, philanthropy and entertainment. There's no ambiguity in his brand.

Consistency: His tagline may be "The Rose that grew from concrete," but Jalen sports a hardwood backdrop across all of his social channels. His roll-up-the-sleeves, thinking man's profile image conveys the message that Jalen's hard working and analytical, not to mention one of the best dressed figures on or off television. Jalen's online touch points are all tightly integrated and his messaging (look, tone, and terminology) - and design (name, logo, tagline, color palette, type styles, sizes, textures, etc.) are remarkably consistent. Consistency begets familiarity and recognition; which, in turn, generates trust, confidence, and loyalty. Repetition wins, on and off the court.

Constancy: Jalen is ever-present on both traditional and social media channels. He blogs, micro-blogs, video blogs, attends and presents at conferences, interacts and engages with old and new media publishers, hosts a fan club, and of course, analyzes basketball games in front of a national television audience. What can you say? The man is ubiquitous on multimedia.

Jalen clearly uses the 3 Cs to crush it online.

How does your brand stack up? Does it pass the test? What can we learn from Jalen? Please leave your thoughts below.

Need help?

Read Gary Vaynerchuck's new book, Crush It, for more information on personal branding and converting your passion to profits.

Let's #Hash This St. John's Twitter Thing Out

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:36:00 +0000

I’ll make two bold assumptions if you’re reading this post:

1) You’re on Twitter, and
2) You follow (literally and/or figuratively) St. John’s Basketball

If you responded “No” to number one, please click here. If you responded “No” to number two, what are you waiting for? Opening night is right around the corner.

Twitter can be a confusing place for newbies and veterans, alike. The micro-blogging platform makes it relatively easy to follow people, but finding a specific conversation can prove to be challenging.

For that reason, the Twitter community created #hashtags, which are appended to tweets as a way to organize and categorize conversations. In our world, the topic of interest is St. John’s Basketball; and fans, media members, and other on-lookers are in need of an appropriate #hashtag to easily identify the conversation in search.

That’s where YOU come in! In the first go-round, our canvassing efforts yielded two highly popular #hashtags, and it's time to take a vote.

Which St. John's Basketball #hashtag should we use on Twitter?(answers)

Deadline: Thursday, October 22, 2009, at 12pm noon. Winning #hashtag will be announced on Twitter at Red Storm Tip Off event that evening!

If you're still struggling to wrap your head around Twitter or #hashtags, or both, please click here and here.

Thanks for participating! Will you be joining the conversation this year?

Interview with NBA's Director of Marketing (and Social Media Strategy), Dan Opallo

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:35:00 +0000

While social media is on the cusp of exploding into mainstream marketing, the National Basketball Association is quickly becoming a benchmark organization for building influence and community online. The global sports entertainment brand has successfully integrated social media into its internal and external marketing campaigns and promotional initiatives, all of which have enhanced NBA fan interactivity and the overall fan experience. Dan Opallo, the NBA’s Director of Marketing and catalyst behind this success, was gracious enough to answer a few of my questions about the League’s use of social media.

Here’s a summary of our conversation. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

PRC: The NBA has always embraced continuous innovation and change. When did social media utilization shift from an idea to an integrated element of your marketing strategy?

Dan Opallo: We have worked very hard in the social media space to position the NBA as a market leader. Three years ago, we started working with Facebook and integrating social media as an important part of our marketing mix. When we first engaged fans on Facebook in April 2006, the site had 6 million users. Today, Facebook has over 300 million users. Further, we launched our Twitter account last February and have seen a huge boost in our fan's activity in the space. We are constantly looking for innovative ways to enhance our fans' experience with the NBA, its teams, and its players.

PRC: How does social media tie-in with your overall marketing goals? Given the ever-changing look and names of social media platforms, how often do you revisit these goals and decide on which platforms to use?

Dan Opallo: The goal of our marketing department is to get our fans to consume the NBA by going to games, watching on TV, visiting NBA.com, buying a jersey, etc. Our social media platforms offer us a more intimate way to interact with our fans in real time. We try to keep them current at all times on breaking news, scores, milestones, compelling player and team stories, exclusive offers from our partners, and compelling content. We always try to maintain the balance of keeping the user experience on our platforms fresh, while also keeping an eye on what our next platform may be. As I mentioned before, our fans are very sophisticated in the social media space, and so are our players. Those are two powerful resources for us to utilize. Many times, they are the trendsetters themselves.

PRC: What other departments do you work closely with when strategizing and executing your plan? Do other internal departments have plans to use social media for other functions (i.e. communications, hiring, research, customer service)?

Our social media operation is really a day-to-day collaboration between Marketing, Communications, Interactive Services and NBA Entertainment (content is king!). However, we work closely with every group and team in this organization to ensure that we are properly leveraging our audience to best serve their specific goals and initiatives.

PRC: How does your department define success with social media? What metrics are used to gauge performance?

Dan Opallo: Great question, and I think that answer has changed in the past year or so for all brands. It will continue to. I'm happy to say that our following in social media has been tremendous. Our fans find us and our players in this space in huge numbers. They have viewed over 320 million videos on our YouTube channel since its launch in 2007; we are the #1 brand right now on Twitter; and we have added over 1 million fans on Facebook in the past year. Equally noteworthy is that Shaq, Dwight Howard, Paul Pierce, and the Lakers are each over 1 million followers. These are just a few examples of our success in social media.
Most importantly, our success in social media is measured by conversation from our fans on these platforms. It's extremely important for us to have a constant sense of their sentiment: what is working and what isn't. We frequently recognize and react to their feedback. The immediate reaction from fans in this medium allows us to easily understand their view of our brand at an exact instant of time.

PRC: Is there one "voice" behind the NBA's Twitter feed, MySpace, and Facebook Fan Pages? How many individuals are dedicated to these accounts?

Dan Opallo: Yes, and it's Kermit the Frog. Actually, there is a team represented by the groups which I mentioned above. Because of the sheer volume of work required to maintain the branding, content, and communication on these platforms, we need to staff the operation similar to any other web network or even TV station. To manage the operation, we meet and communicate frequently on a daily basis, understanding the importance of getting "it" right in this space for basketball fans.

PRC: Describe the relationship between the League Office and team properties when it comes to social media training and development, implementation, and guidelines?

Dan Opallo: First and foremost, the league is a resource to our teams when it comes to social media or any other initiative that is important to them. We constantly try to assist our teams to achieve their business goals through social media. The league's social media properties are a great resource for our teams and players to elevate important messages which they want disseminated to our fans.

The recent guidelines we sent to our teams were in line with our existing media guidelines. They simply added some ground rules about the use of mobile devices and social media applications. Our guidelines provided clarity as to what periods of time communication activity would be permitted. I think the guidelines are very fair and leave our players more than enough time to communicate to fans in this manner around the time of their games. We encourage their interaction with fans. However, we felt there needed to be guidelines in place close to game-time.

PRC: Any thoughts on where all of this technology is headed? How does the League Office and its employees stay on the forefront of these trends?

Dan Opallo: If I had to guess, I think 2010 will be the year that a larger percentage of the population will be equipped with mobile devices better suited to deliver social media content. Fans, players, the league, all social media users will be able to create content and strategically distribute it at increasingly faster rates. We have two new smart phone apps coming out this season that we are very excited about. We are all going to be pushing the envelope and giving new meaning to the word "instant." Two years ago, I certainly wouldn't have guessed that I would be having meetings on how to cut down promotional copy to 140 characters, while being sure to leave space for a Tiny URL or a "RT @_____." Now, anything's possible.

Q+A with Founder and CEO of Career Athletes, Chris Smith

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:57:00 +0000

Career Athletes, LLC, is the leading provider of a wide range of dedicated career development services for current and former student-athletes who compete/d in collegiate athletics. To date, students from over 1,200 individual colleges and universities and all sports backgrounds have utilized Career Athletes as a valuable tool in their transition from the athletic field to the workplace.

Since 1998, Career Athletes has been focused on providing educational and career service resources, technology solutions, and career mentoring to assist and connect current and former student-athletes, college athletic administrators, athletic alumni organizations and hiring managers throughout the United States.

I recently had a chance to connect with Founder and CEO, Chris Smith, to learn more about Career Athletes and its services. Prior to founding this start-up, Chris held various positions in the Pharmaceutical, Finance, and Investment Banking industries. He holds a bachelor's degree from Missouri State University in Entrepreneurship/Management, and played college football.

Chris leads by example... Oh, and by the way, Pat Garrity (former NBA player and Notre Dame standout) is on Career Athletes' Advisory Board.

PRC: What is Career Athletes' raison e' etre, or reason for being in business?

Chris: I’ll give you our quick elevator speech – “Career Athletes is committed to growing a secure and advantageous national community of current/alumni athletes, athletic departments and business organizations by providing our members an opportunity to build and maintain professional connections with each other. “

So how do we accomplish that? For one, we work directly with athletic departments who outsource their career education and alumni relations needs, essentially making us an extension of their athletic department. Secondly, our staff conducts hundreds of on-campus seminars, providing updated career education for our athletic departments’ student athletes. These seminars help our members focus on life after sports and prepare them to make the difficult transition. Student-athletes who participate are then registered in their respective university career networks powered by our online community. Within these customized networks, current/alumni athletes have access to career education, mentoring, alumni connections and professional connections with our business organizations.

PRC: Student-athletes are often targeted for professional positions in all industries. Talk to us about some of these common qualities that employers are seeking from former student-athletes?

Chris: I think that our business members place significant value on the many traits student-athletes possess. In particular, we have found that employers value the fact that the majority of student-athletes possess a competitive nature, are coachable and goal oriented, handle pressure well, and understand the value of teamwork. As a former college athlete myself, it’s been exciting, and also a privilege to have assisted thousands of alumni student-athletes with outstanding career opportunities ranging from entry-level positions to VP’s of Fortune 500 organizations.

PRC: In what ways does Career Athletes provide value to both employers and prospective employees?

Chris: The world is getting bigger everyday and prospective employees and employers who have a shared interest are constantly looking for efficient ways to connect. Career Athletes provides employers continuous employment branding, community/resume search tools, on-campus sponsorships and customized career postings for all members of the Career Athletes community. On the flipside, our members know that if an employer is contacting them, that employer values the experiences and traits of a student-athlete and in essence is creating a warm connection. Instead of being one of millions of job seekers or employers on national job boards, all of our members are part of a community with shared interests.

PRC: How does your organization use, or plan to use, social media to carry out its goals?

Chris: Social media is one of the most valuable tools in our arsenal from a communication perspective. We never set out to be another Facebook or LinkedIn, but rather we use those sites as a way to broaden our own community and also as a communications channel to get our message to members. We know that current student-athletes, as well as more alumni each day, are using those channels to connect, so we are bringing our message directly to where our members and prospective members work and play online, be it via Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

PRC: What does Career Athletes define success? What does ultimate success look like for your organization?

Chris: Personally, I define success by continuing to bring value to our members through an educational, advantageous and efficient community. We’ve come a long way since 1998, but ultimately we would like for every current/alumni student-athlete and athletic department to be a member of Career Athletes. It’s an ambitious goal, but it’s our mission to educate and prepare current student-athletes for “life after sports.” If we do our job of providing an efficient solution for our athletic departments and current/alumni members, then I know we can achieve it.

How Do You Answer These 3 Important Questions?

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:06:00 +0000

What are you doing?
What's on your mind?
What are you working on?

There's a strong chance you've seen these 3 questions before. They are the cornerstone status queries for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, respectively.

If all three images and questions resonate, kudos, you're already in the game. This puts you ahead of many in your peer group. Do you recall the ocean of vacant accounts for head coaches in men's college basketball?

The problem is perception.

A prominent Division I Women's Assistant Coach recently told me that "Twitter is a waste of time. Nobody wants to know what I'm eating for lunch....Not even my husband."

That's partially true.

Nobody cares about the pasta fazool you just had with garlic bread. But, what if I told you that you're not supposed to answer these three questions at literal value all of the time?

Huh?

That's right. These questions were designed to 'start' the conversation, not become a fixed subject of conversation.

Only a handful of mega-celebrities can get away with broadcasting their minutiae. You and I have to add value, and there's a lot of people doing this successfully on all three platforms. That's why I'm on board. The basketball community could always use more.

How you ask?

Share your favorite basketball drills. Link a useful article on the NBA's new marketing initiatives. Ask a question. Retweet (equivalent to forwarding an email on Twitter) a great quote from John Wooden. Post pictures or videos from the next big game you attend.

Maybe you can scrap all three questions and answer this one: How can I be useful to my friends/followers/connections right now?

Do that well and your network will grow with quality people. So, back to my original question: How do YOU answer these 3 important questions?

Please write them below.

Thanks, and make today a great day!

200 NBA Sites to Visit Before You Die

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:29:00 +0000

Okay, maybe that headline is a bit over the top. In an attempt to commemorate my 200th blog post, I fell back on an age-old advertising technique, the list post, and merged it with a "before you die" prompt to action.

Forgive me?

Maybe this comprehensive resource will change your mind. I'm quite sure there's 200 sites listed below. Blogger has been slipping up, and wouldn't let me use the numbered list function.

I'm even more certain that I left out some valuable sites. If you find it in your heart to look past the dismal headline, would you please leave those sites in the comments section below?

Also, I would love to know which site serves as your "go-to" place for NBA information. In the meantime, happy clicking!

NBA News, Analysis, Opinions, and Stats:

Yahoo! Ball Don’t Lie

The Hoop Doctors

Both Teams Played Hard

All Balls Don’t Bounce

Garbage Time All-Stars

Basketball Prospectus

The Good Point

The Association

The Blowtorch

NBA Basketball and Other Unrelatedness

Sir Charles in Charge

New York Times

The Bleacher Report

82 Games

Team-Specific Blogs:

Hoopinion (Atlanta Hawks)

Peachtree Hoops (Atlanta Hawks)

Hawk Str8Talk (Atlanta Hawks)

Hawks Blog (Atlanta Hawks)

CelticsBlog (Boston Celtics)

Celtics 17 (Boston Celtics)

CelticsHub (Boston Celtics)

Red's Army (Boston Celtics)

Bobcats Baseline (Charlotte Bobcats)

Rufus on Fire (Charlotte Bobcats)

Queen City Hoops (Charlotte Bobcats)

Blog-A-Bull (Chicago Bulls)

Bulls Blog (Chicago Bulls)

Bulls Confidential (Chicago Bulls)

By The Horns (Chicago Bulls)

Da Bullz (Chicago Bulls)

Pippen Ain't Easy (Chicago Bulls)

And 1 Cleveland Blog (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Cavalier Attitude (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Cavs: The Blog (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Fear The Sword (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Le Cavs (Cleveland Cavaliers)

The Anetzberger Verdict (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Mavs Ball (Dallas Mavericks)

Mavs Blog (Dallas Mavericks)

Mavs Moneyball (Dallas Mavericks)

The Smoking Cuban (Dallas Mavericks)

The Two Man Game (Dallas Mavericks)

Denver Stiffs (Denver Nuggets)

Roundball Mining Company (Denver Nuggets)

The Chris Andersen Files (Denver Nuggets)

The Nugg Doctor (Denver Nuggets)

Detroit Bad Boys (Detroit Pistons)

Full Court Press (Detroit Pistons)

Life on Dumars (Detroit Pistons)

Need 4 Sheed (Detroit Pistons)

PistonPowered (Detroit Pistons)

Pistons Nation (Detroit Pistons)

Golden State of Mind (Golden State Warriors)

Golden State Warriors by SFGate (Golden State Warriors)

The Warriors Rundown (Golden State Warriors)

Warriors World (Golden State Warriors)

Rockets Buzz (Houston Rockets)

Rocket Dunks (Houston Rockets)

Rockets Locker (Houston Rockets)

The Dream Shake (Houston Rockets)

Indy Cornrows (Indiana Pacers)

Eight Points, Nine Seconds (Indiana Pacers)

PacersInsider (Indiana Pacers)

PacersPlace (Indiana Pacers)

PacersNews (Indiana Pacers)

ClipperBlog (L.A. Clippers)

Clips Nation (L.A. Clippers)

Forum Blue & Gold (L.A. Lakers)

Lakers Blog, LA Times (L.A. Lakers)

Lakers of Fire (L.A. Lakers)

Lake Show Life (L.A. Lakers)

The Lakers Nation (L.A. Lakers)

Silver Screen and Roll (L.A. Lakers)

3 Shades of Blue (Memphis Grizzlies)

David's Memphis Grizzlies Blog (Memphis Grizzlies)

Grizzlies Online (Memphis Grizzlies)

Hot Hot Hoops (Miami Heat)

Miami Heat Blog (Miami Heat)

Miami Heat Beat (Miami Heat)

Peninsula is Mightier (Miami Heat)

Brew Hoop (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucksketball (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucks Den (Milwaukee Bucks)

Bucks Diary (Milwaukee Bucks)

The Bratwurst (Milwaukee Bucks)

Canis Hoopus (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Dunking with Wolves (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Howlin' T-Wolf (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Timberwolves Basketball (Minnesota Timberwolves)

TWolves Blog (Minnesota Timberwolves)

Nets are Scorching (New Jersey Nets)

Nets Daily (New Jersey Nets)

New Jersey Nets Basketball, NJ.com (New Jersey Nets)

At The Hive (New Orleans Hornets)

Hornets 24/7 (New Orleans Hornets)

Swarm and Sting (New Orleans Hornets)

KnickerBlogger (New York Knicks)

New York Post Knicks Blog (New York Knicks)

The Knicks Blog on SNY (New York Knicks)

The Knicks Fix (New York Knicks)

BlueBlitz.net (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Daily Thunder (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Thunder Oklahoma City (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Welcome to Loud City (Oklahoma City Thunder)

Howard the Dunk (Orlando Magic)

Orlando Magic Daily (Orlando Magic)

Third Quarter Collapse (Orlando Magic)

Bright Side of the Sun (Phoenix Suns)

Deep Purple (Phoenix Suns)

Official Phoenix Suns Blog (Phoenix Suns)

Planet Orange (Phoenix Suns)

Valley of the Suns (Phoenix Suns)

Liberty Ballers (Philadelphia 76ers)

Philadunkia (Philadelphia 76ers)

Philadelphia 76ers Blog (Philadelphia 76ers)

Sixers Journal (Philadelphia 76ers)

Blazersedge (Portland Trailblazers)

Beyond Bowie (Portland Trailblazers)

Beyond The Beat (Portland Trailblazers)

Bust a Bucket (Portland Trailblazers)

Rip City Project (Portland Trailblazers)

A Royal Pain (Sacramento Kings)

Sacramento Bee Kings Blog (Sacramento Kings)

Sactown Royalty (Sacramento Kings)

Cowbell Kingdom (Sacramento Kings)

Courtside with the Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

Project Spurs (San Antonio Spurs)

48 Minutes of Hell (San Antonio Spurs)

Pounding The Rock (San Antonio Spurs)

Cuzoogle (Toronto Raptors)

Dino Nation Blog (Toronto Raptors)

Mediocre Forever (Toronto Raptors)

Pete Marasmitch (Toronto Raptors)

Raptor Blog (Toronto Raptors)

Raptors HQ (Toronto Raptors)

Raptors Republic (Toronto Raptors)

All That Jazz (Utah Jazz)

Jazz Bots (Utah Jazz)

Salt City Hoops (Utah Jazz)

SLC Dunk (Utah Jazz)

True Blue Jazz (Utah Jazz)

Utah Jazz, SLT (Utah Jazz)

Agent Dagger (Washington Wizards)

Bullets Forever (Washington Wizards)

Watching Wizards (Washington Wizards)

The WizzNutzz (Washington Wizards)

Truth About It (Washington Wizards)

NBA Draft:

Draft Express

MyNBADraft.com

NBADraft.net

NBA Fantasy Basketball:

NBA Magazines:

NBA Wiki:

Hoopedia

NBA Player's Association:

NBPA

WARNING: Do Your Basketball Blog Comments Fall Into These 5 Categories?

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:24:00 +0000

"It's commonly said that of all readers of all Web content, 10 percent comment and only 1 percent are genuine content creators." - Trust Agents, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Do you realize what kind of opportunity that presents?

We all make the rounds to our favorite basketball websites. Some of us, in the sake of time, even subscribe to these sites using a feed reader. But do you leave insightful comments to advance the conversation? Or, do you just lurk from site to site without ever leaving your digital footprint?

If you want an online presence in the basketball community that clearly and accurately demonstrates your personal brand, commenting is an easy outlet to begin building equity. Blogging is a lot work, trust me. Worth it? Completely, and then some. But, commenting is much easier and can prove to be invaluable as well.

Think about the various online communities that you frequent for basketball news and opinion: ESPN, CBS Sports, SLAMonline, Hoopsworld, Rivals, Scout. Fill in the rest. Are you invisible on these sites, or do you contribute in a real and meaningful way that makes you an active community member?

If you're in the latter group, you must ensure your comments are useful or entertaining, and convey a message that you actually care about more than just yourself. Comments are indexed by search engines and are quickly traceable back to the person that leaves them (should you decide to leave your name, which I recommend doing). Comments also leave an impression on fellow community members that visit the site, too. You never know who else is reading!

The comments section of a blog or website is a place to continue the conversation. As Brogan and Smith write in Trust Agents, sometimes "comments can become more useful than the content."

All that said, don't become one of these 5 people when commenting on basketball websites:

1) The pioneer. You've seen it before at the bottom of a great read: "First!" Usually it appears on basketball websites that cater to the teenage demographic. Being the first person to comment on a widely read article is a favorable opportunity. Don't cite the chance as an accomplishment; be relevant and substantive.

2) The shameless self-promoter. I'm sure you've seen this one, too: "Hey, check out my blog. I wrote about the Knicks' need for a franchise player a long time ago." Well, that's great, but it's not the appropriate way to get noticed. You could mention that you covered a specific subject, however, only after you left a valuable contribution that pushes the dialogue forward.

Learn from my mistake. When I first started blogging, just under a year ago, I hired a consultant to improve my search engine results. New to the game, I obliged on most of her recommendations. One still haunts me (see below). Blogrolling can be a boo-boo in and of itself, but making the request in 1) the comments section of 2) an unrelated blog is a HUGE mistake.

Google captured every single one of them, grammar mistakes (see Your's) and all. I apologized to each blogger and asked to have it removed, for their respect and mine. Unfortunately, not all responded. If you want someone to link to your blog, provide valuable content and don't ask for it. Period! Learn from my error.

3) The agreer/disagreer. You just read a fantastic article about the Phoenix Suns' adoption of social media, and someone writes, "Hey, great work. I agree." And that's it. There's no value in simply writing 'agree' or 'disagree.' What do you agree or disagree with? Fill in the gaps that the publisher may have missed. Play the devil's advocate. Do something more.

4) The Rude Jude. I'm not talking about the guy who redeemed himself on the Jenny Jones Show. I'm talking about the person who gets a kick out of insulting the blog author or another community member's comments. It's okay to disagree, but being rude or insulting has an adverse long-term impact. If you don't have anything better to say...

5) The text talker. IMO may be acceptable in a comment, but leave other text talk (LOL, ROFL, etc.) in chat windows. IMO (proving a point), abbreviating in the comments section indicates laziness.

Want to monitor the blog comments you leave? Try Backtype, coComment, or Commentful.

WHAT ELSE?

What type of comments irk you on the basketball websites that you read or host? Please leave them below.

iHoops vs AAU: A Twitter Report Card

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:01:00 +0000

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has been ubiquitous in the youth basketball space for quite some time. Soon, however, the century-old organization will not be the only 800-pound gorilla in the room.

Enter iHoops.

iHoops is the NBA and NCAA's joint initiative that aims to "provide a structure and develop programs to improve the quality of youth basketball in order to enhance the athletic, educational and social experience of the participants."

Sounds fair, right?

Well...that depends on who you ask. Some see the newly found for-profit entity (backed by sneaker giants, Nike and adidas) as a direct competitive threat to existing youth basketball event operators and promotion and development organizations like the AAU. Others view iHoops as a very positive step forward for American youth basketball.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this one plays out. iHoops.com, the organization's online backbone, is not up and running yet.

In the meantime, however, I thought it would be fun to take a look at how both organizations have been using Twitter to communicate with their target audience. There's a ton of people that represent and talk youth basketball at any given time on Twitter, and these two are the biggest players in the youth market.

Here's my analysis. Please leave your feedback on this report and thoughts about the potential cooperative/competitive relationship in the comments section below.

Thanks!

AAU - @TheRealAAU
- Twitter Grader Score: 86 / 100
- First Tweet: June 25, 2009
- Follows: 10
- Followers: 92
- Tweets: 75
- Tweets per day: 2.0
- Profile type: Organizational

The good:

- AAU is a century-old organization with a huge database of targeted email lists that could be used to notify members of its presence on Twitter
- Has a profile picture
- Selected an easy-to-remember, easy-to-spell Twitter name

- Twitter button is prominent on AAU's website homepage

The bad:

- AAU's profile name is one word, "AmateurAthleticUnion," while it's not required
- Bio section is left blank, which could let the community know what the organization is about and what type of followers they want to attract.
- Geographic location of headquarters is not listed
- Clumps all sports under one umbrella; a sport-specific account could let users follow their particular sport of interest

- Uses the default Twitter background; misses opportunity to brand organization and cross-promote other social channels (AAU has a Youtube account and Facebook Fan Page)
- Twitter feed is not listed or populated on Facebook Fan Page
- Writes messages to specific Twitter users without @ symbol
- Account is not verified by Twitter

The ugly:
- Excluded URL in bio section to drive traffic to site
- Shared links in Tweets are not introduced

- Facebook outposts to Twitter are boilerplated and cut off Tweets (> 140 characters)

- Twitter is a social channel; AAU only broadcasts messages and doesn't participate in a two way conversation
- Tweets are few and far between

And for iHoops...

iHoops - @iHoopsTweets
Twitter Grader Score: 95.4 / 100
- First Tweet: August 26, 2009
- Follows: 1.983
- Followers: 706
- Tweets: 34
- Tweets per day: 2.4
- Profile type: Organizational

The good:
- iHoops completed its bio and clearly describes the organization's purpose

- Customized Background with large logo in upper-left hand corner of page
- iHoops has a profile picture (logo)
- Twitter feed is advertised on Facebook Fan Page
- iHoops follows its target audience members

The bad:
- Since somebody is squatting @iHoops, the company is using @iHoopsTweets as its user name.
- Tweets are recycled (used multiple times on same page). This is a good strategy to use later on since many Tweets go unread by people not logged-in all day long.

- Not included in various Twitter Directories (Twellow, WeFollow, Twitr)
- Geographic location not listed
- Website placeholder does not include Twitter button (missing out on opportunity for followers)
- Account is not verified by Twitter

(Twitter button could generate followers)

Ugly:
- Not an active part of the community online; broadcasts only
- Tweets are few and far between

The Economy's Effect on Basketball Worldwide

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:14:00 +0000

This following is a guest post by Ron Schultz, CEO of Tank Sports Marketing Group (Seattle, WA), which partners with select athletes to translate their visions into reality. Please leave feedback for Ron in the comments section below.

As the basketball world enters a second season in a down economy, players are questioning why there are no jobs available. Some are mad, many are frustrated, and all are asking “why?” In this article, I hope to answer some of the questions about the current state of basketball around the world.

Most European countries are experiencing unemployment over 8%. Spain has seen unemployment increase 10 percentage points over the last two years from 8% to 18%. When companies have to layoff so many workers, they must also tighten budgets, reduce spending, and try to keep cash flowing into their businesses. This means becoming more focused on core business activities and spending less on marketing and sponsorship of non-essential business. Sponsorship of sporting events or sports teams is not considered essential to most businesses.

Don’t forget, too, that fans are also the same workers who are being laid off, and therefore become unable to spend money on leisure activities such as attending sporting events. Outside of the U.S., most basketball clubs don’t make a profit. Teams operate at a slight loss every year or just break even, spending what is given to them by sponsors. These teams receive very low television revenue, have low attendance at games – usually 3,000 to 6,000 fans - and their operating budgets are largely derived from business sponsors, wealthy individual contributions or government support. As the economy suffers, businesses don’t have money available to sponsor teams, wealthy individuals see their portfolios dwindle and governments are faced with funding unemployment, public safety and civic responsibility instead of funding sports clubs.

In the past two years, most teams around the world have struggled to survive. In 2008-2009, many teams found it difficult to pay bills and salaries on time. In the case of Iceland, which suffered total collapse of their financial economy, teams were forced to ask their peers in other countries to take their players and coaches. Icelandic teams were willing to pay for players’ flights to any team that would take them as they could not provide food, housing or salary for these players and coaches.

In many countries teams have gone bankrupt, or at best, reduced their budgets. This has been done by reducing salaries for players and coaches; converting game day operations staff, front office and administration staff positions into part-time paid positions or volunteer positions. Many of these people hold full time jobs and work for the sports club as volunteers.

Salaries for local players have been severely reduced, and in some cases eliminated, while salaries for import positions have been cut up to 50%; in some cases, leagues have been operating with no imports at all.

No country has gone unaffected. Even in regions like the Middle East, which is perceived as always having a great economy and with money to spend, teams have reduced the number of imports allowed and reduced the salaries they are willing to pay. Of course there are a few exceptions, but these are usually on the high-end with very well known teams. These teams still pay very good money and have very talented teams with big budgets, but they have reduced their spending as well.

The NBA implemented a minor change over the summer, which will greatly help team budgets this season. Players on the Injured Reserve no longer have to sit out 5 games. The team is now able to name their active roster one hour before game time without a minimum number of games an injured player must miss. This will allow teams to carry 13 players on their roster and activate 12 for each game.

In years’ past, teams would have 14-17 players under contract to cover players who had to be moved to the injured list. This change will have fewer players under NBA Contract for this season, and those players will in turn be looking to play in other leagues in the U.S. and overseas. All said, there will be more players looking for fewer jobs.

4 Reasons Why NBA Teams Should Nomee

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:12:00 +0000

No, the headline is not a typo, and I'm not declaring for the NBA Draft in 'text slang.'

This is about nomee, the 'ultimate sharing and following tool' that technology veteran, Chris Pirillo, suggests "has all the social networks that you can imagine. It's nice to have one application to rule them all.."

Why does it rule?

Simple: "nomee will do for the social web what TiVo did for television: enable users to discover, return to, filter, and consume the information they want on their own terms," said nomee's Director of Strategic Alliances, Mitchell Savage, who recently walked me through the desktop aggregation platform.

It's a bold claim, but it's backed by good money. Think Todd Wagner, co-founder of Broadcast.com, which was acquired by Yahoo for $5.7 Billion. Yeah, that's a B.

Do you know who Broadcast.com's other co-founder was?

Mark Cuban.

But, that's not why you, or any NBA team, should adopt nomee.

nomee makes it easy to share and follow the social streams of your favorite teams and players. Instead of going to various sites searching for New York Knicks or Nate Robinson updates, you open nomee, click on the New York Knicks, and nomee tells you everywhere the Knicks and Nate have updated, providing you with live links and the ability to view all the content without ever leaving their nomee cards.

Here's a visualization on following with nomee:

Savage puts it this way: "Although aggregation is one element of what we provide, nomee is different from a social aggregator because of the extensive filtering capabilities it provides users. The social web is like drinking from a fire hose. Most aggregators are just bigger fire hoses and the solution is worse than the problem. nomee puts valves on the spigot and lets you choose your sips."

So let me spit out the 4 major reasons why teams should have a presence on nomee, best put in Savage's words:

FAN ENGAGEMENT. nomee works 24/7, alerting fans to updates to the social and news streams of the teams and players they want to follow. More page views, more click-throughs, more fan awareness and excitement for the team and players.
REINFORCEMENT. Since nomee displays to fans all of the team’s social streams side-by-side, fans will see more of the team’s updates. Where a fan might have previously checked only Twitter, they will now see Facebook, blogs, and YouTube right next to the team’s Twitter icon. Bringing fan awareness to multiple streams enables organizations to reinforce messaging and brand experience.
CROSS POLLINATION. One recording artist using nomee embedded her nomee card on her MySpace page and got a 20% increase in followers on Twitter. Fans were checking only MySpace before, but now saw a link to an additional stream and took an interest. All of the sites still have their own advantages; and cross pollination enables a team or player to bring fans to more content on all their streams.
HAPPY SPONSORS. The banner and video spaces on nomee can feature the team’s sponsors, giving the team a huge value add to tout to sponsors. Fans might open nomee just to see if Danilo Gallinari has updated his Facebook page, and they can see a sponsor video on Gallinari’s nomee card, regardless of whether that sponsor advertises on Facebook.

What do you think of the service? Where can it improve? Please leave thoughts below...

Oh, and check out the 'celebrity' page they created for me: http://nomee.com/peterrobertcasey

Thanks, Mitch!

Q+A with founder and CEO of AthletixNation, Davyeon Ross

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:51:00 +0000

Davyeon Ross founded AthletixNation, Inc., a Lenexa-based multimedia sports content platform that has acquired a multi-year license to publish and distribute Division I college sports video content to media properties and sports Internet sites.

Davyeon began his career as a Software Engineer at Sprint World Headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. He played a critical role in the development and implementation of the company’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. He later became the Technical Lead for Sprint’s Knowledge Management Application.

Davyeon was recruited to join a start-up consulting firm in 2004, eVergance Partners where he served as on-site lead application/technical consultant for several international companies including Research in Motion, T-Online, Business Objects, Sasktel, Mattel, Siemens Medical Systems and Nortel Networks.

He supports various non-profit organizations including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City, Benedictine College Alumni Board and NAIA Champions of Character. He was recently honored by Ingram’s Magazine as a “Twenty in their Twenties” feature.

A native of Trinidad, West Indies, Davyeon earned a BS in Computer Science with minors in Business and Mathematics. His postgraduate education includes Knowledge Management Certification and an MBA from Mid-America Nazarene University.

I recently had the good fortune of connecting with Davyeon about his start-up and how his hoops career impacted his professional career.

PRC: Talk to us about your company and its target audience....What unique value proposition does AthletixNation offer?

DR: AthletixNation delivers college sports video and interactive applications to websites and mobile devices. We provide web sites, including local media (newspaper, radio station and television station) websites, access to post game premium college sports video, which is integrated via the AthletixNation video widget. The value proposition to brands is they have the ability to associate their brands with Division 1 college sports and showcase their campaigns and products to a nationwide network.

PRC: How do your products integrate social interactivity and opportunities for community building?

DR: AthletixNation is fortunate that college sports, and the affinity our fans have for their schools, is a community in itself. We have several products that include social media integration, including facebook and Twitter integration. Although these products are ready to go, we have only made available our Video widget to our publishers. However, we will soon be making our social media integrations available. For instance, all of our applications utilize facebook connect for logging-in, voting, and sharing with friends, etc. We are also making available a Twitter component that automates tweets, thus driving traffic to our college sports videos for our publishers. Assisting our publishers in driving interactivity and traffic back to their local sites is important.

PRC: What role does advertising play in AthletixNation's applications?

DR: Advertising plays a critical role in the AthletixNation applications and widgets. AthletixNation provides the opportunity for brands that have the desire, but don’t have the direct affiliations with the Division college sports properties, to have that opportunity. Advertising is one of our major revenue sources alongside licensing our platform and content.

PRC: Which basketball programs are utilizing your services and how do they benefit from such an investment?

DR: At this time we deliver content for several of the major conferences. The primary beneficiaries of the AthletixNation solution are the college fans, the brands and our publishers. However, the schools and conferences whose content we distribute do benefit from increased visibility and awareness.

PRC: Who/m influenced you to start your own company? How did your basketball career impact your professional career thus far?

DR: As far as I can remember, I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. However, during my tenure as a Software Consultant/Engineer, I was fortunate to be part of a start-up company that was acquired. It was a great situation for the owners, which forced me to explore options within entrepreneurship more aggressively. College basketball played an incredible role in my professional career. From balancing basketball and a computer science degree in college, to the work ethic that is required to be the best athlete you can be, and understanding the dynamics of a team along with roles and responsibilities. It has all been preparation for my professional career. I strongly believe I’m a better professional because of my experience as an athlete in college. Thank you, Benedictine.

Claim Your Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Now!

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Chris Dortch's '2009-2010 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook' is now complete! (full disclosure: Chris and I are friends, and I'm a huge fan of his work, but I don't get paid to promote or sell his Yearbooks).

In my opinion, biased or not, Blue Ribbon is the Bible for college basketball fans, coaches, announcers, media, and scouts alike.

Here's a preview of Blue Ribbon's Preseason Top 25 and All-America Teams. How do your predictions match or differ? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Don't forget to order online or call 877-807-4857.

Preseason Top 25 Presented by EA Sports

1. Kansas
2. Michigan State
3. Texas
4. Villanova
5. North Carolina
6. Purdue
7. Kentucky
8. California
9. Duke
10. Tennessee
11. Butler
12. West Virginia
13. Georgia Tech
14. Minnesota
15. Syracuse
16. Ohio State
17. Oklahoma
18. Connecticut
19. Dayton
20. Maryland
21. Oklahoma State
22. Michigan
23. Washington
24. Georgetown
25. (tie) Siena
25. Illinois

Preseason All-America Teams

Player of the Year

COLE ALDRICH
6-11 JR, Kansas

Newcomer of the Year

DERRICK FAVORS
6-10 FR, Georgia Tech

2008-09 Blue Ribbon All-America Teams

FIRST TEAM
COLE ALDRICH
6-11 JR, Kansas

KYLE SINGLER
6-8 JR, Duke

LUKE HARANGODY
6-8 SR, Notre Dame

SHERRON COLLINS
5-11 SR, Kansas

EVAN TURNER
6-7 JR, Ohio State

SECOND TEAM
PATRICK PATTERSON
6-8 JR, Kentucky

DAMION JAMES
6-7 SR, Texas

GREG MONROE
6-11 SO, Georgetown

WILLIE WARREN
6-4 SO, Oklahoma

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS
6-2 SR, Villanova

THIRD TEAM
TALOR BATTLE
5-11 JR, Penn State

TYLER SMITH
6-7 SR, Tennessee

TREVOR BOOKER
6-7 SR, Clemson

ROBBIE HUMMEL
6-8 JR, Purdue

CRAIG BRACKINS
6-10 JR, Iowa State

FOURTH TEAM
GREIVIS VASQUEZ
6-6 SR, Maryland

JARVIS VARNADO
6-9 SR, Mississippi State

RAYMAR MORGAN
6-8 SR, Michigan State

JAMES ANDERSON
6-6 JR, Oklahoma State

ED DAVIS
6-9 SO, North Carolina

Are Basketball Coaches Crazy?

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Or just passionate?

Hey Coach, this is Peter Robert Casey reporting from Twitter dot com, forward slash Peter, underscore R, underscore Casey. Could you please share your thoughts on the game tonight?

Thought of the Day:

"The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test. Speaking about manic depression, she asked, 'How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?' A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, 'A basketball coach?'" - Old Basketball Joke, Author Unknown

Q+A with Duke Legend and ESPN Analyst, Jay Williams

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:02:00 +0000

Jay Williams is an entrepreneur, community leader, and an up-and-coming college basketball analyst for ESPN. Known for his passion, determination and leadership, Williams parlayed a prolific basketball career at Duke University and one year in the NBA into a successful career off the court.

Jay began his broadcasting career in 2007 at ESPN and CBS covering both college and high school sports. He is a regular contributor on Fox Sports Radio, 99.9 the Fan in North Carolina, and satellite sports radio.

He is a Duke University graduate and was the first athlete in the University's history to earn a degree in just three years (Sociology and Business). He was awarded the prestigious Naismith and Wooden awards given to college basketball’s player of the year, and his #22 jersey has been retired.

I recently caught up with Jay...

PRC: What's in store for Jay Williams during the 2009-2010 season? Will we see you on ESPN covering college hoops?

Jay: This is the year of the grind, my friend. I will be working at least three nights per week in the studio with Doug Gottlieb, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis, Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps. It's always fun working with this cast of guys because we watch hoops all day and play practical jokes on one another. I am also excited because this is my second full year of doing this, and I'm hoping to host my own show one day. Talking in front of the camera is not as easy as it looks, but also is a thrill; just like playing ball. I mean, seriously, I have the best job!!!! I get free tickets to any game I want, and a free pass to the Final Four every year. Two years ago I sat courtside at the Final Four with Justin Timberlake and talked hoops for the first half of the Memphis game! Tell me that's not awesome?!

PRC: You've finally succumbed to Twitter (@RealJayWilliams). What compelled you to join the micro-blogging service? How do you plan on leveraging your account and other forms of social media?

Jay: I think Twitter is the best way to interact with the true fans of the game. I love having conversations not only about basketball, but about politics, baseball, football, tennis, soccer (World Cup, included) and music. There's no better platform to hear others and share my personal opinion. All my friends started killing me as well for not having a page. I met Lance Armstrong a while ago and dude was like, "What's your Twitter name?" I was speechless...I had no reply. It's very new to me, but I am sure I will get use to it. I have so much crazy stuff to share about what's going on in my life! I think its a great platform to raffle away tickets to games that I will do for charity; offer special giveaway packages that I get through some of my sponsors; and a lot more. I also think its a great opportunity to get some serious points across as well! Today my mother had surgery and it was a very emotional day. She just got a kidney transplant last year and it was such a big step considering my grandma passed away of kidney failure. I wanted to tweet everyone out there that life is too short to take the little things for granted. Take time to enjoy the small things that bring a smile to your face.

PRC: In your opinion, what kind of impact will new media have on college athletics?

JAY: I think new media is going to continue having a huge impact on college sports. You can get information so much quicker today than you could only a few years ago. With Twitter, you're able to get the story from the actual person's point of view, rather than just the mainstream media. It's already happening with the Tila Tequila and Shawne Merriman story. She was able to explain her point of view first, before ESPN reported it. College and professional athletes have direct access to their audience, and vice versa. This is a new age of increasing access.

PRC: Tell us about your basketball clinic this weekend down in Durham. Do you still hoop much?

Jay: I do clinics all the time because I feel that it's very important to give back. Someone took the time to not only to teach me the fundamentals of the game, but also to be a role model in my life.

Ok, so I have funny story!

When I was 11 years old, I was the biggest Charles Barkley fan. I mean, I had the guys poster in my room, had the Suns Starter jacket, and even had a signed card of his when he was with Philly. My father surprised me one day with tickets to watch the Suns take on the Nets. It was a great game and after it was over, my father and I stood in the cold for an hour waiting for the players to come out. All I wanted was an autograph from him. He was one of the first players out of the building and signed only one autograph for a kid. I stood there in awe that it was actually him and got so excited. He signed that one autograph and then walked by everyone else and went onto the bus. He was the only person on the bus for about thirty minutes and we stayed just in case he would come down and sign.

I was so disappointed that day, but I promised myself that if I ever made it, I would take the time to sign for everyone. So I get drafted one day and get asked to do a TNT halftime segment with Charles and Kenny. I definitely let him have it a little on air. Being a great role model is what I strive to be. I just hope I can continue to set the right example for young kids out there. I will be doing tons of clinics and camps around the country, so make sure you stay tuned in to my Twitter page to keep up with all the good stuff going on!!

PRC: You left one heck of a legacy at Duke (NCAA Title, NCAA Player of the Year, #2 Draft Pick). What type of legacy do you want to leave off the court?

Jay: I want my off-the-court legacy to convey that I was a hard working person like everyone else. I have my flaws and issues, but I continue to try and better myself as a person on a daily basis. After my accident, I was told that the chances of walking again were slim; but I fought harder and harder each day to prove people wrong. I made it all the way back to a basketball court and proved to myself that I could do anything I put my mind to. At the end of the day, I want to be remembered for giving back. If I can help someone else achieve their dream, then I will feel fulfilled.

Q+A with Founder and CEO of FanFeedr, Ty Ahmad-Taylor

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:17:00 +0000

I recently caught up with Ty Ahmad-Taylor, founder and CEO of FanFeedr--a real-time personalized sports feed for your favorite teams and players.

Ty possesses over fifteen years' experience in interactive media and journalism and provides the overall creative vision and strategic leadership for the FanFeedr website and associated services.

Before founding FanFeedr, Ty served as SVP, Strategy and Product Development at Viacom, where he was the product lead and manager for:

- MTV.com, VH1.com, CMT.com, LogoOnline.com
- MTVmusic.com
- MTV Video Facebook application
- MTV Content API (when it was useful.)

Previously, he was Senior Director of Cross-Platform Applications at Comcast, where he provided strategic planning for the broadband portal Comcast.net, built the first Web 2.0 application for cable companies at http://www.tvplanner.net, and was responsible for interactive entertainment applications that leveraged the PC and the cable set-top box.

Earlier in his career, Ty was Creative Director, Excite@Home (nee @Home Networks), where he led the company's creative efforts for broadband, interactive television and client software.

Ty holds a bachelor's degree from Haverford College and a master's degree from Columbia.

Q: Take us back to the "idea" stage of FanFeedr. Were you looking to create something online, or did this idea cross your mind when you saw a void in sports news feeds?

A: I was looking to solve a problem that I had myself, and I went out and did market validation studies to understand the pain for sports consumers and inefficiencies in their current behavior.

Q: How does FanFeedr work from the user's perspective? Can fans get their news on-the-go via their mobile devices with your product?

A: Here is how someone can use the site, based on our first-time user experience:

To get started…

1. Log in using your Facebook login (we won’t publish anything to Facebook without asking you first).
2. Search for your favorite teams or players using the search bar at the top of this page.
3. “Become a fan” of those teams using the button on the upper left of each search page.

As you become a fan of teams and players, new content will automatically fill your FanFeed. You can get back to your FanFeed from every page by clicking the FanFeed button just above the search bar."

Q: Discuss some of the interactive aspects that your product offers.

A: Folks can make comments on stories, videos, players, and teams, and they can also post these comments to Facebook, and shortly, to Twitter. Additionally, users can respond to the comments, so that is someone says: "Giants rock," you can and should expect a response from Cowboys' fans. Lastly, users can update their status in a sports-related vein and have that publish to either Facebook, Twitter, or both.

We are adding features that will allow users to publish their Fantasy Sports activities and game results to their Facebook and Twitter feed, and we are also allowing users to predict the outcomes of games so that they can get badges for their achievements. such as top Giants' fan and so on.

Q: I noticed in the site index there's a section called "You" that's coming later. What will that be about?

A: The You section will allow people to upload photos and videos, which is a request that a lot of users who attend games want. As always, you can then post this material to Facebook and Twitter automatically, if you wish, to get feedback from friends and followers.

Q: Which basketball players/coaches, in your opinion, are maximizing the power of social media? How are they standing out?

A: I think that Rashad McCants, who doesn't even have a contract, mind you, is a leading light in the basketball community, as he leads contests, has passionate followers, and is also an avid media consumer, which serves him well in terms of being up on trends. He is also personable and nice, and that mix makes for a compelling read on Twitter.

In a similar vein, Kevin Love of the TWolves does a smart job on Twitter and through other social media, and is always entertaining. I won't mention the heavyweights like Shaq and Steve Nash, as everyone already knows about them.

On the coaching side of things, there St. Johns' folks are doing a smart thing in hiring you (no, I am not trying to butter you up), but I don't know of any coaches who are really 1. providing insight into their strategies 2. entertaining with the written word.

That seems like an opportunity for anyone who can get their act together. Likely candidates would be George Karl, and Eric Spoelstra on the pro front. The former because he is a character, the latter because he is younger than most NBA coaches.

I would love to fake tweet as Bobby Knight and/or Phil Jackson, but the FanFeedr legal defense fund needs to be protected for rainy days. Actually, I would like to start a fake Twitter war between the two, but that is my next startup idea.

Discounted NJ Nets Tickets

Peter@PeterRobertCasey.com (Peter Robert Casey) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:05:00 +0000

This just in from my main man, Ken Dorsett, at the NJ Nets:

We are pleased to extend special Nets Basketball Discount ticket offers!

Nets vs. Orlando Magic
Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 8:00pm
Vince Carter returns on Opening Night to the IZOD Center!

Special Ticket Prices:
$57.50 each (Regular price is $115, lower level)
$50 each (Regular price is $100, lower level)
$33 each (Regular price is $66 upper level)
$20 each (Regular price is $40, upper level)

OR

Nets vs. Denver Nuggets
Wednesday, November 4th at 7:30pm
Carmelo Anthony hits the IZOD Center!

Special Ticket Prices:
$20 each (Regular price is $60, lower level)
$10 each (Regular price is $66 & $40, upper level)

Simply click this link to order tickets on-line. Tickets will be e-mailed to you within minutes after purchase

To access this offer, please use special offer code: nets