Kobe Bryant

When we think of social media in basketball, a lot of names come to mind. Shaq was the pioneer. Steve Nash engages with fans with the same smoothness he does orchestrating the basketball court. Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh make announcements on Facebook. LeBron makes notes of his haters. The list goes on, but Kobe Bryant isn’t on that list. No, Kobe Bryant doesn’t understand Twitter or the importance of building his online brand at all.

Mind you, he does have a website with attached Twitter and Facebook accounts but they are merely a microphone to announce his latest shoes, and I’m pretty sure none of it is run by him personally. In the age of social media where authentic content is key, Kobe just doesn’t quite get it.

Or that’s what he’d like all of us to think. You see, Kobe actually knows a lot more about social media than we all think. Even as he pretends not to know how to use Twitter or Facebook, he understands, maybe better than anyone, the power of building an online community.

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About Sam Chan

Sam is the community manager of Sports Networker and the Sports Executive Association. He is passionate in all things sports, mobile, and social media. His dream is for the Vancouver Canucks to win a Stanley Cup in his lifetime, although so far, its looking kind of bleak. In the past, he worked with BlackBerry and helped relaunch their Business-to-Business network. With his experience there, he can probably help you change your ringtone, maybe. When he finds time (never), he also writes infrequently at his personal blog. If you would like to talk sports, write a guest post for us, or argue about why iPhone > BlackBerry, you can find him on Twitter, Facebook or email.

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Should athlete talent dribble through a season of aging before being presented to the pro sports world? Is college a necessary bridge between high school and pro sports?

Let’s think about it for a moment. What would the basketball world look like without LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Kobe Bryant; all of which jumped directly from high school to the NBA?

The NBA requires one year removed from high school. The NHL and MLB allow a player to be drafted once he is 18 years old. The NFL is the only major professional sport that prohibits the drafting of players who are not three years removed from high school.

Is it really in the best interest of the players or is it another way for the NFL and NCAA to profit? Let’s look at the different sides of lifting the age requirement:

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About Michelle Hill

Michelle Hill, the Strong Copy Quarterback for Winning Proof, is a sports and fitness copywriter. My mission is to help pro athletes, coaches, and sports agents increase their success score in their entrepreneurial endeavors with my writing expertise and creative turn of mind.I write website content, client letters, media pitch letters, sponsorship proposals, and brochures for sports-related companies. www.winningproof.com

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Are athletes judged and dealt with more harshly for their indiscretions and blatant crimes than the Average Joe? Are they scrutinized and seen as villains under the media’s microscope in a way that’s justified by those who condemn them?

If we’re honest about it, most people thrive on public scandal and it is evidenced by the way we were glued to our televisions during the O.J. trial.  Of course, other sports heroes have caught our attention with scandals of varying degrees, like Kobe Bryant, Rae Carruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Nate Newton, Michael Vick, Tonya Harding, Mike Tyson, and most recently, Tiger Woods.

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About Michelle Hill

Michelle Hill, the Strong Copy Quarterback for Winning Proof, is a sports and fitness copywriter. My mission is to help pro athletes, coaches, and sports agents increase their success score in their entrepreneurial endeavors with my writing expertise and creative turn of mind.I write website content, client letters, media pitch letters, sponsorship proposals, and brochures for sports-related companies. www.winningproof.com

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sdk(This is a guest article by Stephen Lombardo)

For what seems like an eternity, the NBA has lost some of its appeal to its fans when it comes to All-Star weekend.  The game is the most entertaining part.  However, they don’t actually play basketball until the final five minutes of the game.  All-Star Saturday feels like it doesn’t even exist.  HORSE, the newest event of the weekend, showed its crucial flaw this week when they turned it into a three-point shoot out until someone was declared the winner.  The point guard time trials feel a bit lame, the shoot out is ok, but the slam dunk contest (the NBA’s marquis event) feels like less than a shell of its former self.  How do you save this event, and bring back the excitement there was in the 80’s and 90’s?

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