How about we get to 50k with a bit of class?
UPDATE: If you aren’t on Twitter, this may not make any sense to you (also, if you are, you may not care)
It started out as a self-righteous duel to 50,000 followers between two of the NBA’s most prolific young-guns/Tweeters. Looking from the outside in, it smelt of a cheap way to get followers up while having some fun. However, it quickly deteriorated into a fan backlash by many of us on Twitter.
Now if you’re not on Twitter, you should sign up and follow the lot of us on RR asap (@altraps @arsenalist @rapsfan @realizar and of course @raptorsrepublic), but for those of us who @reply, retweet, #hashtag and DM the hell out of things,to say this whole thing is a disappointment is a gross understatement.
While there isn’t anything wrong with having a friendly competition, the nature of this particular one just rubbed us all the wrong way. Twitter is about joining the conversation, letting people know how you feel about a certain GM, supporting political/human rights causes or mourning a pop-idol. The fact that people follow you means that they like what you have to say, and want to have a conversation with you. Not that they want to be dictated to and sold a bag of magic beans.
So back to things… CB4 and CV31 trash talking each other was all good until all our streams were polluted with an incessant amount of “follow me” “I need 50k followers before he gets it” “I’m close!” “My penis is gigantic” blah blah blah. Things went from mildly amusing to outright disappointing. We already watch, blog and generally shower you guys with praise and gratitude, but everything has its limit.
Slowly the two sides forked in their direction:
Chris Bosh stayed the course. Even promised to stay up to answer everyone (that poor dwarf you have tweeting on your behalf, he clearly didn’t answer everyone, but you have to give the little guy some credit, he has short fingers, and typing so much takes it toll). Just looking at his stream (@chrisbosh), it’s all “@reply thank you’s” and “RT, I need more penis’ to make mine bigger.” It all resulted in his business partner snapping out in a rather disgusting fashion, then deleting it.
Charlie Villanueva went the other direction, turning his quest to 50k into a charity event, donating the equivalent number of followers needed (3172) to get to 50k of sneakers to charity. He even reached out to some shoe dude.Wow, that’s a conversation I want to be apart of.
Chris, you’re my man, I’d give you a max contract in a second to keep you in Tdot. We know that’s not all you on Twitter, two different styles (yours and the douchebags), but you gotta get rid of that dwarf – ASAP. He treats people poorly, is slimy to our ladies, and is a poor reflection on you. At least change your twitter password and keep him the hell away from it. Better yet, let us rep you on Twitter. We’re doing a damn good job of reppin the Raptors on ESPN, and we’re holding it down on Twitter.
