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NBA Wastes No Time Slamming Griffin’s Monster Dunk Onto Social Media

January 30, 2012 by 4 Comments

That didn’t take long, did it? Minutes after LA Clipper Blake Griffin completely posterized Oklahoma City’s Kendrick Perkins, the dunk of the year in all its glory was all over the web, even in a slo-mo clip embedded above on YouTube, courtesy of the NBA.

Remember when you had to wait for the next SportsCenter to view highlights? Or could only see somebody’s hazy shot of a webcam capture of a TV screen? Those days are so 2010. Welcome to the new era, where sports is served up immediately, social-media style. Right now Kendrick Perkins, #dunkoftheyear and Blake Griffin are all trending on Twitter and if you don’t get a link there just hit Google News and the NBA is already serving up league-approved clips of the dunk.

The takeaway, other than the fact that this dude is perhaps the all-time slam champion: Nobody’s waiting for TV anymore. The big screen might still be the best place to watch, but it’s no longer the first.

Of course, SportsCenter wasn’t far behind. This tweet hit a minute after our post. Glad to know they’re burning the midnight oil in Bristol. Or maybe down in LA where ESPN left coast hangs out.

#SCtop10 What name should we give Blake Griffin’s dunk over Kendrick Perkins: http://t.co/P75l8m71

January 30, 2012 10:55 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@SportsCenter

SportsCenter

Filed Under: ESPN, NBA, Twitter, YouTube Tagged With: , ,

OK, Here’s Your Pro Bowl Tweet Parade

January 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We mocked it, just like everyone else. And I didn’t watch the game. But does that mean I’m going to deprive MSR readers from getting their fill of Pro Bowl tweets? Would we take a snarky stab at the event that nobody really wants except the players who get paid 50 grrr just to fly to Hawaii? Hell no! Here ya go!

First up is the Steelers’ Mike Wallace, who loved himself some Twitter. To which we say: Suck up.

Having a great time out here with some awesome players!! Plus we get to tweet on top of that!!!! #Steelernation #Probowl

January 29, 2012 7:36 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@Wallace17_daKid

Mike Wallace

Apparently Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald was having a monster day, no surprise in the no-D thang that is the Pro Bowl. Larry even got out a shout to his grandmama:

Whos having fun watching the game? #ProBowl? I’ve got more unfinished business 2day.Still hungry, get well grandma #FaithFocusFinish! #Aloha

January 29, 2012 7:41 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@LarryFitzgerald

Larry Fitzgerald

MVP Brandon Marshall tried to explain his lucky catch. And here you thought the big guy only paid attention when Tebow was playing:

The ball just fell in my hands!! All glory to god. I promise it wasn’t me. Fins up! #probowl

January 29, 2012 7:59 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@BMarshall19

Brandon Marshall

I guess New Orleans QB Drew Brees tried a drop-kick? He didn’t get to the sideline to tweet about it, but everybody else did. Don’t know who this is but I like his take:

Tom Brady would have made that kick. #probowl

January 29, 2012 8:39 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@dN0t

Rob Spectre

Before the game Drew (or the assistant who handles his Twitter account) got in a sterile plug for Verizon’s NFL Mobile app. (Hint to Verizon PR: If you are shooting for that “authentic” Twitter pitch try to at least change the wording a bit from player to player if you know what we mean.)

Watch me Sunday in the Pro Bowl live on #NFLMobile – only from Verizon! Call **NFL to get it and watch the game on your Verizon phone.

January 29, 2012 1:21 am via DROIDReplyRetweetFavorite
@drewbrees

Drew Brees

Watch the @ at the Pro Bowl LIVE Sun. 1/29 on #NFLMobile only from Verizon! Call **NFL to get it & watch on your Verizon phone

January 27, 2012 3:35 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@HoustonTexans

Houston Texans

You can also watch @ and Chad Greenway in the Pro Bowl LIVE on #NFLMobile, only from Verizon! Call **NFL to get it today.

January 27, 2012 6:49 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@VikingsPromos

Vikings Promos

Is this really the real Warren Moon? Are we the only people reading this old enough to remember who Warren Moon is? Never mind, it’s a good sum-up tweet:

#ProBowl, what a bad display of effort by both squads! The fans deserve much better!! Where is the pride?? @ @

January 29, 2012 8:12 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@WMoon1

Warren Moon Official

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter Tagged With: ,

Dear NFL: We Want On-Field Tweets, Not Just Sideline Stuff! C’mon, Man!

January 25, 2012 by 5 Comments

The game that nobody watches, aka this weekend’s NFL Pro Bowl, is all of a sudden more compelling because — in the No Fun League — players will be allowed to use Twitter during the game, for those random on-field thoughts that us fans just can’t do without.

In typical NFL fashion (see: instant replay) however the apparent way-cool thing is gummed up with controls — players won’t be able to use their mobile device of choice, but will instead be forced to use sideline computers to send their tweets out to the tweetosphere. Putting aside the obvious misstep and head-scratching decision to usurp potential mobile device sponsors (“Ray Lewis here on the Motorola Droid RAZR, LOL!”) the bigger question is if you are going to allow Twitter during games, why not go all the way?

Get coach Ditka on the line for a big C’MON MAN! Commish Rog, here’s the message: WANT LIVE TWEETS! Tweets from the bottom of the pile. Tweets during the snap count. (“One thousand one, Aaron Rodgers! Double-check this blitz!”) Tweets during the play (any wide receiver: “IM OPEN MOFOA!!!”) If anything the league should go completely in the other direction and REQUIRE all players to be using mobile devices at all times, while on the field of play. That would introduce a degree of difficulty that might make the Pro Bowl entertaining, instead of the flag football snoozefest it regularly becomes.

The possibility for new rules are endless… you have to send a tweet while the punt is in the air before you can catch it… if you want to blitz the entire D-line or the blitzing player has to send a DM to the quarterback before the ball is snapped… but instead we have the sanitized, red flag for coaches thinking from the NFL. (And get real: these guys are going to SHARE a computer? Riiiight.) Here’s the money quote on this “innovative” twist:

“This is an innovative way to further engage our fans who have an insatiable appetite for football,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “NFL players have been very active on social media and enjoying talking to fans. The nature of the Pro Bowl enables us to have players tweet during the game.”

If we get some uncensored sideline emotion (like Tom Brady’s outburst earlier this year) then maybe the experiment will be worthwhile. But our guess is that the “sideline tweets” will be as useless as the Pro Bowl itself. #bringbackthecollegeallstars.

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter Tagged With: ,

Super Cellular Battle II: AT&T, T-Mobile Beef Up Indy Coverage; But What About Twitter?

January 24, 2012 by 6 Comments

If your call, text or tweet doesn’t get through from the Super Bowl in Indianapolis, you probably won’t be able to blame the phone companies. Today AT&T and T-Mobile joined Verizon Wireless and Sprint in announcing special plans to increase wireless capacity for the Feb. 5 showdown between New England and New York, which is expected to attract enough folks to completely fill the 70,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium.

From the info provided so far it looks like AT&T has done the most in terms of bringing wireless resources to the Indy table: According to the press release AT&T is not only expanding the DAS antenna coverage inside the arena, it is also firing up a public Wi-Fi hot zone in the adjacent neighborhood, while also adding some outside DAS deployments as well as driving nine COWs (cell towers on wheels) in for the party. Indy is also one of the select cities where AT&T has launched its new 4G LTE network, so it’s a good guess that the infrastructure there is new and ready to rock. Safe to say, AT&T probably isn’t going to experience a SXSW style cellular fail at the Super Bowl this year.

T-Mobile, the nation’s fourth largest wireless provider, had sort of a me-too feel to its announcement but things like free charging stations (at the T-Mobile store that is near the stadium) and a T-Mobile sponsored relaxation zone with couches and hot beverages might come in handy if you are in the area. T-Mobile says it has also beefed up backhaul inside the stadium and throughout Indianapolis in general, so if you are a T-Mobile customer you should be OK come game day.

Still unanswered is the question of whether or not popular Internet sites like Twitter are making similar infrastructure preparations for the expected surge in traffic. We still haven’t seen any explanation or mea culpas from Twitter in regards to Sunday’s multiple fail whale appearances, other than a small status report that says everything got fixed. As Jim Rome says, better head to Fry’s, guys, and beef up that server farm.

Awesome day for the NFL, terrible day for Twitter. Better hit up Fry’s for a server or two before the Super Bowl.

January 22, 2012 9:24 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@jimrome

Jim Rome

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, NFL, Sprint, Super Bowl, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Twitter Knocked Out During AFC Championship Game

January 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

New England Patriots fans were no doubt concerned when star tight end Rob Gronkowksi got injured during the third quarter of today’s AFC Championship Game. Though Gronkowski came back to play, we can’t say the same yet for microblogging service Twitter, which has been on the sidelines for a good part of the second half.

No such problems so far for the ESPN live chat. Let’s hope Twitter gets its act together for the Niners-Giants game in less than an hour.

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter Tagged With:

Bleacher Report Adds iPad Version of ‘Team Stream’ App to Address Growing Mobile Reader Base

January 19, 2012 by 6 Comments

A screen shot of the iPad version of the Team Stream app from Bleacher Report.


To better address the nearly 40 percent of its viewers who access its content via a mobile connection, Bleacher Report is launching an iPad version of its “Team Stream” app today, giving fans a better mobile viewing experience for the “stream” of news, Tweets, story links and other info that Team Stream helps them create.

Having a version of the app available for the Apple iPad will give Team Stream users a bigger screen to negotiate between articles and content items, and will also provide a “personalized dashboard” on the home screen with national-topic headlines as well as stories about the topics and teams selected by the user.

While the Team Stream app has gained its share of kudos and credits — if you’ve never used it, it’s incredibly simple and powerful, bringing you a mix of professional media content as well as athlete- and fan-generated content on the teams of your choice — what was more interesting to us at Mobile Sports Report was Bleacher Report’s claim that almost 40 percent of the site’s overall traffic is now coming from mobile connections, showing that sports fans are leading the way to content consumption on the go.

Here's what the smartphone version looks like.

“We really saw mobile happen in 2011,” said David Finocchio, co-Founder and vice president of content and product at Bleacher Report, in a phone interview. According to Finocchio, Bleacher Report — one of the top sports websites — started the year with just less than 10 percent of its traffic via mobile. By the end of the year that number was almost at 40 percent, making the “mobile future” something that was here, now.

Inside the mobile traffic number, Finocchio said readers using tablets “grew faster than any [device] segment, and it continues to grow faster.” That fact made development of an iPad version of Team Stream a no-brainer. Now fans who currently use the desktop or phone versions of Team Stream to compile tweets, stories and other info from around the web (curated by Bleacher Report editors) will have a larger screen mobile option, the better to watch video replays or view pictures.

Bleacher Report, which now claims 22 million monthly unique visitors and picked up $22 million in growth capital this past summer, is carving out its own space in the ever-expanding world of sports media with a unique focus, one that Team Stream helps deliver: Finding the best content, which is often local in origin, and then arranging it in one place to make it easy for fans to find.

“Right now it’s just too damn hard to go out and find all that information by yourself,” Finocchio said. “You should be able to go to one place.”

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, bleacherreport, Mobile sports pioneers, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,
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