The Twitter infatuation has quickly spread to the world of professional sports, and the number of athletes using the service is growing daily. Through tweeting, athletes can connect and engage fans, build up their personal brand, grow and nurture their fan base, and even ask for help! Fans who grew up idolizing their favorite stars now have a chance to interact with them, and offer them advice and support. I complied a list of the top 10 NBA ballers (in no particular order) you should all be following on Twitter, because they are what makes the NBA “Where Twitter Happens.”

1) Shaquille O’Neal – @THE_REAL_SHAQ

Shaq (A.K.A Shaqtus, The Diesel, The Big Aristotle…) is one of the NBA’s most popular all time players.  Following 585 accounts, his 2,911,684  followers make him the most popular baller on Twitter. Though he doesn’t tweet every day, he is known to interact with his followers, and even uses the live broadcasting service Ustream. After all, how can you not follow someone with a bio that reads “Very quotatious. I perform random acts of Shaqness“.

2) Amar’e Stoudemire – @Amareisreal

Amar’e is another big man with a big Twitter presence. He Follows 182 people, and has 70,935 followers. He is very interactive, and often times re-tweets fans before answering their questions. Amar’e has a calm twitter personality, and always has nice things to say about the community, other players and even opposing fans. One of the most pleasant athletes to follow on Twitter, in my mind.

3) Dwyane Wade – @dwadeofficial

Considered by many to be amongst the top 3 players in the world, D-Wade follows 122 users and has a following of 309,325. A Frequent tweeter, Wade will keep you entertained by mentioning basketball, his friends, and personal activities. He likes to do unique things and let the world know about them. Whether it is the trending topic he tried to start on May 12, or the theater he rented for his movie “Just Wright”, he will make sure you are aware of it! His latest trend? #MaMaWade, which are quotes he receives from his mother and shares with the world. The Marquette grad is truly striving for an international presence and wants you to be a part of it.

4) Charlie Villanueva – @CV31

One of the nicest guys in the NBA also happens to be one of Twitter’s most popular. Following 342, the Pistons forward has 83,743 followers. Through following Charlie, you will enjoy his thoughts about basketball, personal life, and the many charitable efforts he is involved in. He is also very proud of his Hispanic heritage and the many communities he is a part of. A humble person in nature, Charlie takes time to respond to his fans and on April 13 he conducted 31 questions with CV31, where he answered 31 fan questions. My favorite came from  @Need4Sheed_com who asked “Who would win a cage match between Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye?” Charlies answer was “LOL, Tayshaun because AD is still a rookie.” I wonder if that fight would happen before Mayweather V Pacquiao

5) Chris Bosh – @chrisbosh

While Toronto is building campaigns to keep Bosh in Canada, the raptor is building up his Twitter brand. Following only 39 accounts, he has 114,148 Followers. Bosh tweets about nothing and everything. Whether it is daily activities, basketball opinions, or what he is having for lunch, he will keep you entertained with all news concerning Chris Bosh. The only question he doesn’t want to answer is “Where will you play next year?”

6) Lamar Odom – @RealLamarOdom

Following 44 and being Followed by 702,246, Lamar is a Hollywood man with a down to earth Twitter personality. Player for the Los Angeles Lakers and husband to Khloe Kardashian seems like a glamor filled life, but Lamar doesn’t update us about his Hollywood encounters. Instead, he takes pride in interacting with his fans, trying to answer most tweets he gets. When he isn’t answering your burning questions, Lamar tweets links to charities and foundations. A pleasant person to follow!

7) Dwight Howard – @DwightHoward

Dwight is a unique Twitter user. He Follows a whopping 4,386 accounts and is Followed by 1,565,600. What makes him unique is his tweeting pattern. He may spend a day responding to tweets without firing a single public tweet, and then spend a few days not responding to a single mention. He also tends to repeat his tweets, though many of them are for good causes such as the Dwight Howard Fund. At 8,779 total tweets, the Orlando star is one of the busiest users, and most unpredictable.

8 ) Fabricio Oberto – @obricio7

A surprise pick for this list? Not really. The Wizards player Follows 104 accounts and is Followed by 329,568 – a bigger following than many of the more known players on this list. Though most his tweets are in Spanish, Fabricio answers fans and continues to grow his brand both in the United States and Argentina, where he is a national hero. I need to brush up on my Spanish, so I can follow his tweets more closely.

9) Chris Paul – @oneandonlycp3

One of the league’s best Point Guards, Chris Paul Follows 254 and has 114,201 Followers. He frequently tweets about personal life, including his celebrity friends in his tweets. He frequently spreads love to his family and friends, but doesn’t seem to answer too many mentions. However, he always seems like he is in a good mood, so CP3 fans will have a lot to enjoy

10) Mark Cuban – @mcuban

Ok, I know his basketball skills aren’t quite NBA level (as we saw in the celebrity game during the All Star break), but Mark is an important personality to follow on Twitter. Not only is he one of the country’s most famous owners, he is an entrepreneurial minded individual, with knowledge and experience anyone can learn from. Following 657, his 140,716 Followers enjoy his opinion about technology, finance, innovations, charitable programs, and much more. Definitely worth the follow!

Bonus Follow: NBA – @NBA

The league is a popular entity on Twitter. Following 702 accounts, its 1,869,414 make it the 69th most powerful Twitter account in the world. (According to Twittergrader). The NBA will spread information about your favorite player and team so you always stay current on the league’s news. In fact, in the time it took me to type this, the NBA gained 7 followers. Will you be next?

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About Reuven Fridmar

Reuven is a fourth year student at Marquette University, earning degrees in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. He hopes to create sports marketing initiatives that drive value while focusing on charitable causes. Reuven lived in three countries and visited 13 total. He prides himself on being fluent in Hebrew, Russian, and English. People and idea lover. Connect with Reuven on Twitter @ReuvenFridmar

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Lewis asked me to highlight some of the most influential sports business people on Twitter, and I’m all about making Lewis, and more importantly the Sports Networker audience happy. But when I sat down to make that list, all I could think about was BORING!

Those people aren’t hard to locate, in fact if they’ve done a good job providing great content then chances are you already know about them. If not, then you can start here or perhaps here with this list I made awhile back (it certainly needs to be updated.)

So instead of giving you the same old list of names, I thought I would share some under the radar sports business people that you should be following. For the sake of having a criteria, these are all people with under 1,000 Twitter followers, but that I consider to have interesting/valuable tweets about the business of sports.

Without further ado…

@JasonSprenger – Jason is PR/Marketing professional in the tech industry (I think), but his passion is sports, and it shows. He tweets about sports and unselfishly tweets good content about sports, PR, and marketing. He’s a former award winning journalist and blogs at The Sports Ace.

@JoshFeinberg – Josh is a networking champion (like Lewis) and is currently working for the Lakewood Blue Claws. He’s made an immediate impact in the organization (though I get the impression he would do that anywhere), especially with his recent Nine Innings of Networking promotion. (Heads up, it is a PDF.)

@Spiewak – The national football editor for CBS Max Preps.com, Stephen is constantly chatting with half the names mentioned on this list. He also has his finger firmly on the pulse of the prep scene, which is fortunate for us, because most people don’t follow it that closely.

@KatieBailey – Katie Bailey is a free lance sports writer, and ACC hoops fan. She blogs about sports at Sports Kate, and aside from sports you can catch her chatting about food (Krispy Kreme donuts in particular.) She has a master’s degree and is currently seeking an advertising/PR gig in DC. Hook a girl up.

@DMFreedom – David is the CEO of Pilote Media. He specializes in sports marketing, partnership and activation, as well as the use of emerging technologies and how they fit into the picture. He’s great about highlighting other users and leaving insightful comments on blogs.

@TimNATC – Tim is the coordinator for the Sport Management department at York college. What a great way to learn from a professor without having to pay to enroll in his classes. Like David, Tim always provides well thought-out insight that adds value to the conversations at hand.

@JackieAdkins3 – Jackie is an extremely diligent intern at Sports Media Challenge. He’s about to finish his senior year at UNC and is well versed in all things marketing, not just sports. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him. He shares his thoughts on marketing on his blog here: That’s All I Have to Say About That

@BgcDuke7 -Danny may have eclipsed the 1,000 Twitter followers mark by the time this goes live, but don’t hold that against me. He’s worked for all kinds of sports entities and is one of the most conversational sports peeps on Twitter.

@SportMktgProf – Like I mentioned, with Tim, I’m a sucker for soaking up knowledge from professors. Julie is a professor/entrepreneur who blogs about very engaging topics in the sports stratosphere. Not to mention her blogroll is a GREAT resource for those interested in sports/marketing blogs.

@BrianGainor – Brian is one of those guys that just “gets it.” Like me, Brian lives the double life. He’s an account executive at GMR by day, and runs his own diddy, Sponsorship Activation in his spare time. Make sure you check out his resources page for some real gems like, 25 Ways Sports Organizations can use Twitter.

@MMahoney13 – Mark is a sports marketing, sales executive for the Carolina Panthers. When he’s not cutting a rug with Sir Purr he’s helping serve the Carolina’s by connecting with sports companies and agencies to explore partnerships and sponsorships. His sweets are very high in sports concentrate.

@SportsInfo101 – Charles is a sports executive with an emphasis on new media, branding and technology. His tweets cover sports of all kind, sports management, and he blogs at The Sports Info Business, which features all kinds of relevant info including some great interviews with prime time players in the sports realm.

And finally, I’m throwing in a bonus just for good measure. This last person isn’t really a sports business/marketing professional, but she’s awesome so I’m adding her to the list.

@LoisHeilig – Lois has been dubbed the “Sports Granny.” She’s a 75 year old Syracuse fan who loves Women’s basketball. For some more insight into Lois check out her fan spotlight here.

What is best about all of the people I’ve listed here as that not only are they extremely knowledgeable, but they’re also all very friendly so take a few minutes to add them to your Twitter network and start engaging them about the sports topics that interest you.

Finally, there’s no reason why this list has to stop at 13 names. Besides, isn’t that considered unlucky. Please use the comments section to include other sports business people we should follow, take the time to recognize, give a shout out to, etc. Ah what the hell, go ahead an include your own Twitter name so that we can make this post a destination for all this passionate community of sports professionals. What are you waiting for?

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Ryan is an Associate Media Analyst at Sports Media Challenge where he helps champion social media strategies for sports, lifestyle and entertainment brands. In his spare time he serves as a social media consultant who is passionate about the power of web 2.0 and its ability to cultivate conversations, build relationships and spread of ideas. Feel free to leave your thoughts on his article in the comments section below, connect with him on his blog at Ryan Stephens Marketing or on Twitter @ryanstephens, and read the rest of his bio here.

About Ryan Stephens

Ryan is an Associate Media Analyst at Sports Media Challenge where he helps champion social media strategies for sports, lifestyle and entertainment brands. In his spare time he serves as a social media consultant who is passionate about the power of web 2.0 and its ability to cultivate conversations, build relationships and spread of ideas. Feel free to leave your thoughts on his article in the comments section below, connect with him on his blog at Ryan Stephens Marketing or on Twitter @ryanstephens, and read the rest of his bio here.

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