Twitter (and Facebook) is a major force these days. We want scores, we head to our respective social media platforms. You notice that on Twitter (and recently on Facebook) that famous teams, players and names in the basketball game have a blue badge to the right of them. John Hobbs sadly spent the best part of a week scrolling through accounts that he believes should be verified on Twitter (and we guess Facebook too).
Gone are the days when we relied on the news channels on TV for our fix of news stories, whether they were breaking, national or regional. And if we wanted to know more about a particular story, we had to wait until tomorrow’s newspaper came out on sale.
For those old enough to remember how it was done before that, be aware that I am an 80’s baby and that’s how I remembered it.
When the World Wide Web launched in 1991 (mergers between services and the internet were happening before), the Internet was a new and all of a sudden powerful tool with unlimited potential. Websites now became a secondary source for news updates and articles, but newspapers and television as well as the radio were still dominant.
As time as progressed though, with internet packages dropping in price and with easier plus more accessible ways to connect and use the internet in many different ways, such as social media and various blogging links, the internet is undoubtedly the most powerful news tool there is.
Social media, which properly began with Facebook (MySpace and Bebo doesn’t count) slowly began sharing news items with its growing audience and in 2006, Twitter was born. With Twitter’s unique microblogging style, it was easier for the media and the journalists to link its followers with their own articles, news stories, breaking news and even pictures (which Instagram eventually took care of).
To ensure its followers of a profile’s authenticity on Twitter; they verify (blue badge with a tick) a well-known celebrity, company, musician, sportsman, media group and journalist. A few years down the line and Facebook copied the trend.
Now, here at TalkBasket, all of our bloggers and journalists love basketball and we are all over Twitter. You can follow us here and you can follow me here. But if we put aside the verified accounts on Twitter, we look at those accounts that are not verified but should be. Well, in our opinion anyway.
TYRESE RICE ( @ReseRice4 )
Last season’s Euroleague Final Four MVP is not verified. True fact.
He was European basketball’s spotlight guy post-Milan and has been a regular face in both the Euroleague and Eurocup over the years and still he is not verified? I am followed by musicians and YouTube movie makers that I’ve never even heard of and it’s because they only exist on YouTube – and no where else – but they get a blue mark by their name for some reason.
KEITH LANGFORD ( @Keith_Langford )
Last season’s Euroleague Alphonso Ford scoring champion is still a regular guy like us all. He has not joined Twitter’s upper class.
He briefly spent some time with the San Antonio Spurs in 2007, but Langford has mainly travelled around Europe and currently resides in Kazan, where he is playing for Euroleague returnees Unics.
Same as Rice though, Twitter verify players like Pau Ribas, Sinan Guler, Matynas Pocius and don’t verify the above two. Balance, Twitter … Balance.
ZACH LOWE ( @ZachLowe_NBA )
It surprises me in honesty that there are some basketball-related figures, whether it is websites or journalists somehow get verified yet Grantland’s Zach Lowe is not. There are a few websites, while excellent at their craft that mainly copy news/work from other websites or papers and get a blue tick yet Lowe; undoubtedly one of the most in-depth basketball writers at the moment is not.
Lowe is a regular tweeter, as he links his 192,000-plus followers to his NBA columns on the Bill Simmons-operated Grantland website as well as YouTube videos and separate thoughts, predominantly on the NBA but also at times, he tweets about topics away from basketball.
PANATHINAIKOS ( @paobcgr )
One of Europe’s most successful basketball clubs ever is not verified.
25,000 followers on Twitter and they do not have a verified badge, yet Bayern Munich, Limoges and Nanterre are!?! No offence to the aforementioned clubs but in basketball history and in basketball form, like, now. How can you verify teams that have had a couple of Euroleague appearances over the years and some titles when you have a team, playing in one of Europe’s biggest domestic leagues and has six Euroleague crowns to their name and they are not blue stamped? Madness.
Funnily enough, Panathinaikos’ Twitter operator has just followed the official “@Verified” page. Maybe the wheels are in motion? Or maybe he’s asking Twitter: what the hell?!
OLYMPIACOS ( @olympiacosbc )
I’m guessing that Twitter has a thing against Greeks.
One of the Euroleague most established clubs, and two-time winners in 2012 and 2013 and nothing. It is a surprise.
Back in 2013, Euroleague did inform me (on Twitter) that they are in the process of trying to verify all of their teams. Is it possible that these two Greek giants do not want to be given the old blue rubber stamp?
DAVID PICK ( @IAmDPick )
American-born, Israeli journalist David Pick, a contributor for Eurobasket and ONE is a must follow for fans craving European basketball news stories, rumours and opinion. Recently drafted in by NBA Insiders as a columnist, Pick’s range of basketball contacts, whether it be NBA or Euroleague is vast.
And if you really want to know, he hit the game-winner in the Euroleague Final Four media game in front of a capacity crowd of two volunteers at the Mediolanum Forum.
Big deal. I drained a three-pointer in the warm-up line at the media game in London’s 02 Arena in 2013.
BC Khimki ( @Khimkibasket )
Lokomotiv Kuban ( @lokobasket )
Unics Kazan ( @bc_unics )
Really, this should read, “All Russian clubs that are not CSKA Moscow”, but Khimki, Unics Kazan and Lokomotiv Kuban will probably be used as the main Russian sides that should really be verified. And instead of individually listing them and write the exact reason why, all three are put on the list.
Simply put, CSKA Moscow are the dominant force in Russian [VTB League] basketball and constant regulars in the Euroleague, with 11 visits in 12 seasons. Khimki, Lokomotiv and Unics are more-or-less CSKA’s “closest” rivals in Russia and regulars either in the Euroleague or the second tier Eurocup. Twitter needs to give these teams some love, surely?
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I know, I know, there are other teams, organisations, players, journalists that I might have included in this list. But those are my main seven figureheads that I feel Twitter need to verify.
