Chris Bosh didn't practise or play at the NBA all-star weekend, but that doesn't mean he didn't work up an appetite. Hungry and searching for a decent restaurant in relatively unfamiliar Phoenix, he didn't consult the Yellow Pages or surf the Internet or phone Bryan Colangelo, the foodie of a Raptors general manager who has spent most of his life in the Arizona desert.
Bosh, instead, used his BlackBerry smartphone to solicit recommendations on Twitter, the social networking site that, judging from the number of times it was referenced by hoop types this past weekend, is becoming ever more popular. Bosh's short message - known as a "tweet," in the parlance - reached the fellow Twitterers who have signed up to "follow" Bosh on the service. "I got about 10 replies," said Bosh, somewhat incredulous.
And though the tech-savvy Raptor confessed to taking exactly none of the suggestions - "We just went to, like, the Cheesecake Factory" - he has professed his devotion to Twitter by posting regular updates on everything from his whereabouts to his current state of being. All of his updates fall into the parameters of the so-called microblog: They're at most 140 characters in length and text-based. To view the lot of Bosh's output, go to twitter.com/chrisbosh.
"We're hitting (Twitter) hard," said Bosh, speaking, as he occasionally does, in the third person. "It's interesting just to get people's reply. You can put up what you're doing. Or if you have a question, you'd be surprised how much people know. You can be, like, 'I need directions to this spot. People will tell you.'"
Bosh was marvelling at the usefulness of the application at the NBA's annual Technology Summit, where he and Steve Nash, among other hoopsters, spoke on panels about various tech-based topics alongside executives from Google and Apple, among other global leaders. Mark Cuban and David Stern, who were also in attendance, both made reference to Twitter. Cuban, an Internet billionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks, hits it hard. Even Stern has recently posted a short greeting on the NBA's official feed.
Shaquille O'Neal, Nash's Phoenix teammate, has been posting under the name The_Real_Shaq for most of a few months. In the wee hours of Monday morning, after O'Neal was named co-MVP of the big game with his former Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, The_Real_Shaq tweeted his appreciation.
"Kobe is the best," went the message. "(H)e told me to take the trophy (home) for my sons, class act, thanks bro."
Indeed, if you browse Twitter's website long enough, you'll soon understand that the typical tweet isn't dripping with profundity. But Bosh, who in the past has carved out an Internet identity by posting videos that were both self-directed and popularly comedic, said he uses Twitter to connect with his fan base, even if his is a relatively small following. Yesterday, Bosh's profile on the site indicated that he had 1,246 followers. The_Real_Shaq, by comparison, had some 92,798.
Still, Bosh has always been an early adaptor and he persists. When the Raptors were in New York a couple of months back, Bosh tweeted the following: "Trying to find some size 14s on 5th AVE. Wish me luck."
When a recent road swing saw the Raptors spend an extra night in a hotel waiting to play the Timberwolves, Bosh checked in: "Bored in Minnesota : -(."
When the club confirmed the trade that sent Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon to Miami he offered this: "I'm sure it will work out for everyone."
As for the rest of the all-star weekend, on Saturday the young bachelor sent out Valentine's greetings "to all the lovely ladies." And even as he sat nursing a sore knee in street clothes as the West beat the East in a blowout, he pulled out his BlackBerry and thumbed the keys.
His in-game tweet?
"I wanna play!"
