Sportsfrog.com

I know it’s a scary new world out there with Twitter and all, and you are guys are being rather Luddite about it, but, here’s the thing. You don’t get to ignore it. So when Allen Iverson himself broke the news that the Grizzlies had made him a contract offer on his twitter page early yesterday, that was all that was needed for it to be a story. Because Iverson himself was the source of the news. And you would figure he would know.

So when you ran a crawl on ESPNews last night that said “Chris Sheridan reports that Allen Iverson has contract offer from Grizzlies” that gets filed under no-fuckin’-shit. But thanks for feeling like you need to put the imprimatur of “approval” on the news the world already had for about 12 hours thanks to Iverson himself.

Get over yourselves, ESPN. There are sources for “breaking news” now that are not going to be you. Stop pretending you have the story exclusviely when everyone in the world has had it for 12 hours.

Jeebus.

The details from the Commercial Appeal, which goes ahead and cites to Iverson’s twitter announcement as the source for its reporting. Well done, Commercial Appeal. From the story:

It appears the former All-Star is deciding between Memphis and Charlotte. There is a strong possibility Iverson could land with the Bobcats, who can offer the midlevel exception without entering luxury tax territory.

Charlotte would reunite Iverson with coach Larry Brown and present an opportunity for the 13-year veteran to start. Memphis still views Iverson as a reserve guard behind O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley.

You want to read a fantastic article about the Southeastern Conference’s recent decision to ban fans (!) at games from facebooking and tweeting, then check out what Michael Kruse of the St Pete Times wrote on Sunday.

Here’s a quote, and when you’re done, come back here and finish reading this simple little blog post.

Many are saying this makes the bosses of the SEC look like fuddy-duddy technophobes — that they don’t “get” new media.

They get it. The language of the conference’s policy suggests they know all too well the high-stakes fight that’s just beginning.

Ok, welcome back. You’ve just witnessed – probably for the 103rd time today – the power of the hyperlink.

It’s the most basic, most fundamental value of the New Media world. And it’s just the beginning of a giant shift in the way news is distributed and how it will be paid for.

Inside that shift, there is a clear divide forming; the ‘those’ and the ‘those-nots’.

On one side, there are teams like the New York Jets – who are fast becoming the poster boys of social media (mostly because they are in NY, many pro sports teams are doing what they are doing.)

For another example, take this story from TechCrunch about a new startup called FanChatter. It has partnered with a few pro teams (Twins, Wild, and others) to set up a way for fans to take photos and video of themselves at a game and upload it to a place where people who work for the team can post the photo/video on the scoreboard (at best) or (at worst) on the web site. It’s basically the exact opposite to the idea as the SEC had.

So when I read about morons at the SEC, or like at the Associated Press, who think they’ll be able to figure out a way to control the flow of this tide, I just laugh at the level of Fear I see on display.

What all this does… the actions of the AP, the SEC, ESPN… is take regular everyday developers like me, and regular everyday users like the guy next to me, and turn us into an army of hackers. All ready to see the latest wall that is built for us to scale.

Their only weapon is enforcement.

And since technology is now the enemy of closed, the future is on the side of the open.

To Dan Jenkins.

As has been mentioned before in the Swamp, Jenkins is an absolute must read during the major tournaments, and he’s been on fire today.

Some quotes (I refuse to use “tweets”):

Strolled course today. A friend observed there were more tan-legged girls in short shorts than any other major. I didn’t notice this myself.

Looks like the Olympics will have golf in 2016. That’s seven years from now. I’ll be there if I can scrape all of the food off my chest.

If you have an account, give Jenkins a follow. It’s well worth it. Oh yeah, give us a follow too.

If Kevin Love’s Twitter is to be believed.

As a casual observer, this is disappointing because Joe Smith was a free agent again.

…never come to an end?

Those twitter updates from Demarcus Ware that he and the Cowboys were close to a contract extension? NOT from the Cowboy Demarcus Ware. The Cowboy Demarcus Ware ought to be thrilled that the imposter stuck to something as mundane as contract negotiations for the mischief…

The evil of twitter cannot be contained. And that was a bad idea for an April Fool’s joke.

Mark Cuban.

$25,000 lighter in the wallet per the NBA for a tweet he sent criticizing a ref following Friday’s Mavericks game. Oh twitter, can your evil be contained?