Twitter craze is changing the face of sports (cont.)

Whether you're a college coach pumping your program, or a player thumbing away just for fun, let Shaq offer a simple tip for making the All-Twitter team: "Never be boring," he said. Unfortunately, a simple sweep of athletetweets.com, a site that collects jock and coach missives from the Twittersphere, shows that some people defy the Big Tweeter's wisdom. Take a Lance Armstrong tweet, from early May: "Just landed in Venice. Never been here. Can't wait to experience it." Inspiring. Lance, we know you love three things in life: bikes, beers, and babes. Not one fan will think any less of Livestrong, or of your sicko work ethic, if you give us a real tweet: "Drinkin' a Peroni in Piazza San Marco, that brunette snapping pigeon pics ... BELLA!" (He may be catching on though: on Friday morning, Armstrong announced the birth of his son, Max, on Twitter.)

For an example of intriguing communication, Lance should check out the page Minnesota Lynx forward Candace Wiggins, who tweeted this: "Omg. Rodney King came over to my uncle's house again. He lives down the street. Wow." Omg indeed. Jackson is also a talented Tweeter. Here's an entry from one Saturday in May: "Movie day. .. just finished watching paid n full. Now I'm going to watch Rent." Really, Rent? An NFL star is into artsy musicals? That's a nice insight into Jackson's personality: No day like today, buddy. However, Timberwolves guard Rashad McCants, over Twitter, told Jackson that Rent was a song and dance act. Jackson followed up with: "@Rashadmccants7 what up homie? It's a musical? Awh man." Keep an open mind, Steven. Those tunes are quite catchy.

Many athletes don't see Twitter's appeal. "I'd rather be playing with my kids," said Baltimore Orioles infielder-DH Ty Wigginton, who proudly points out that he's never thumbed LOL. For other athletes, it's a privacy issue. "I don't think I want to tell people everything I do all day," said Philadelphia Eagles middle linebacker Omar Gaihter. "It's just invasive. It's like you're on a reality show, and you have a camera following you around all day, every day."

Coaches worry that manic 140-character conversation can numb team chemistry. "Our players will be texting each other, even though they're riding the same bus," said Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summit, a 1,000-game winner. "Talk. A big part of being a team is getting to know each other and tuned into each other instead of tuned out." And at the end of the day, shouldn't players be spending more time focused on their jobs and less tweeting about manicures? "One guy has told me less twittering, more jump shots," Love said. "Less getting your nails done, more jump shots."

Will we ever get Twittered-out? A warning sign is already out there: according to Nielsen Online, Twitter's audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month's users who come back the following month, is just 40 percent. "I believe we will ultimately have Twitter fatigue," said David Stern, a surprising comment since he leads the most Twitter-happy league in sports. But Stern is betting sports will benefit from the inevitable pullback. The thought: right now, everyone is shadowing each other on Twitter. Friends, acquaintances, annoying co-workers and distant relatives all have access to each other's daily tasks. But you'll soon get sick of knowing breakfast habits of the high school classmate you last saw in 1993. You'll ignore the state of your neighbor's lawn. We'll soon remind ourselves that the every day tasks of average people are as compelling as a stale piece of carrot cake. Twitter's technology will stick, but the audience will be more selective. "At some point, you will see people going back to old reliable friends, the sports leagues and players that they know," Stern argued.

If Stern is right -- and history has shown he has a keen feel for tech trends -- Twitter will change athlete/fan interaction forever. Teams are already grappling with Twitter's momentum. For example, at their mini-camp a few weeks ago, the Rams media relations staff, and new head coach Steve Spagnolo, addressed Twitter in team meetings. They did not demand players stay off the site, or limit their tweets. The Rams just asked them to keep sensitive information off Twitter. Think about that for a second. A spitfire NFL coach had to lecture his players, among the most macho, muscular, and ferocious athletes on the planet, about something called "Twitter." Hear that thumping sound below you? That's Lombardi knocking his head against the grave.

Does Twitter distract jocks from their day jobs? Athletic Twitterers emphasize that posts take 30 seconds at most to write. "If someone wants to say I had a bad game because I use Twitter too much, that's a ridiculous reach," Jackson said. Cink has already heard such whispers, though he dismisses any suggestion Twitter is messing with his swing. "It's had no effect on golf at all," insists Cink, who, coming off a career year in '08, has struggled on the Tour while flourishing on Twitter. He missed the 54-hole cut at the Players Championship. "I stink. Literally and figuratively," he tweeted.

Even if he never gets his game back, Cink is one Twitter addict who has left a mark. There's a reason that, despite his test-pattern Q-rating, Cink has almost 300,000 followers. If anything, the web is a democracy, and savvy users vote for the best stuff out there. Cink's page provides an ideal mix of golf insight (strategies, swing tips, a view of the 17th hole of Sawgrass from the drop area), humor ("Too bad you weren't on the redeye with me back from Vegas. Guy puking in bag across isle."), and the banality that fascinates fans ("Waiting for the rain to clear out. Hoping to hit bike trail with dogs this afternoon").

Cink also converses with individual members of his Twitter crowd, which helps them feel like they are a part of his world. Hopefully, other athletes will follow Cink's example. "It's like the only legacy I have," he said. "One day, on my gravestone it's going to say, STEWART CINK, TWITTER PIONEER OF PGA TOUR. AND ALSO, PLAYER." As epithets go, it could be worse. It's under 140 characters, too.

Sean Gregory is a staff writer at TIME magazine.

Also See:
Best Tweeters by Sport: NBA | NFL | MLB | Olympics | Best of Rest
Gallery: Greatest Moments in Sports Twitter history
Time.com Cover Story: How Twitter is changing our lives