Every person on social media is one tweet away from destroying his or her life. That factor alone has a growing number of sports media personalities asking a big question: Why would anyone want to use Twitter when the potential risks far outweigh the potential gain?
The bonkers Bryan Colangelo story — in which The Ringer's Ben Detrick reported the 76ers president allegedly used five "burner" Twitter accounts to badmouth players like Joel Embiid — underlined the inherent danger in misusing the social media platform. Colangelo might go from boss of the next NBA dynasty to a cautionary tale. Just ask Roseanne Barr, who destroyed her own No. 1 TV show with a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett (Barr blamed the sleep drug Ambien).
If the Colangelo story is true (he continues to deny his involvement with the accounts), his job is in jeopardy. During Wednesday's episode of "Pardon the Interruption," ESPN's Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon shook their heads over Twitter's ability to lure unwitting celebrities to the Scylla and Charybdis of social media.
"The overarching question for me is: Why does anyone go on Twitter? Why do you do this — so you can immediately lose your job?," asked Kornheiser. "This is to me, if this is true, a gots-to-go situation immediately. If it's not Colangelo, but somebody he knows well, somebody in his family, somebody in his narrow circle of acquaintances, and he knew about it, and let it go without stopping it, and that was in his power, then has to go.
"For me Mike, this is an issue of trust. If you work for Colangelo, and you cannot trust that he will keep your secrets with him, then I don’t know why you would want to work for him."
Kornheiser frequently rags on social media because he's one of the few major sports personalities (along with Charles Barkley of TNT) who refuses to participate, said partner Michael Wilbon. But the "two-way fascination with social media" is one big reason for the NBA's popularity, he noted. The content is always flowing from the players to fans and vice versa. New NBA stars like Embiid are social media maestros.
Wilbon has a good point about the NBA and social media. The Washington Post's Rick Maese wrote Thursday about how fans and journalists who watch NBA games alone with Twitter as their second screen are never lonely. Instead, they find themselves in the world's biggest sports bar, exchanging quips and opinions with millions of hoops fans. Look for Twitter use to explode tonight during ABC's telecast of the 2018 NBA Finals between Stephen Curry's Warriors and LeBron James' Cavaliers.
"On social media, there’s nothing like NBA Twitter. It’s a sports bar that doesn’t close, a barbershop with unlimited seating, a family cookout where the NBA stars show up to hang," wrote Maese.
Over on FS1's "Speak for Yourself," Colin Cowherd described Twitter as a "loaded gun."
It's a mistake to pick up a deadly weapon when you're angry, tired or impaired from drugs or alcohol, noted Cowherd. "You've got to be able to stay away from the loaded gun. That’s why I don't go home, drink cocktails, get in my pajamas and tweet. I have enough trouble. You can get yourself fired. But you can’t get a raise on Twitter."
His partner, Jason Whitlock, has frequently warned about the dangers of social media, describing it as a fake, funhouse "CyberWorld" that's not an accurate reflection of reality. If the allegations are true, Colangelo's actions are a "misdemeanor at best," according to Whitlock, compared to the larger fraud of social media.
"(Colangelo) has damaged his credibility — and the credibility of the franchise. But I’m telling you, he’s barely scratched the surface of what’s going on pervasively throughout all the media," Whitlock said. "Everybody has gone into this fake twitter world and social media world. People with money and means are manipulating the truth, and the perception of them, and the perception of others. Constantly. And they’re paying for it. They’re paying real cash to have it done."
During a Fox Sports Radio appearance with Clay Travis, Whitlock went further, saying media companies should ban front-facing talents from Twitter, period, using the cautionary tale of Bill Simmons as a primary example.
From his beginnings as a snarky, politically incorrect provocateur, Simmons "sold out" for social media approval, according to Whitlock. In the process, he nearly destroyed his own brand. That's why Simmons' HBO show, "Any Given Wednesday," lasted only four months despite the Sports Guy's 6.1 million Twitter followers.
Barkley has been another prophet about the dangers of self-destructing on social media. The more you have, the more you can lose. Sports personalities who've run afoul of their employers — such as Jemele Hill of ESPN — got in trouble because of what they tweeted, not what they said on the air or wrote in a column.
The real danger for someone with something to lose is getting into flame wars with Twitter trolls. Before this year's March Madness run, Sir Charles explained why he's not on Twitter — and never will be.
"You’ve got to understand why I don’t do social media. There are people who their only goal in life is to say something to piss you off," Barkley said. "It doesn’t matter what they say. Your response back to them is the one that’s going to blow up ESPN or the internet. I might be in a bad mood. Somebody might have died in my family. I might have had a fight at home. I might be drunk. Last thing I want to do is to say something that I can’t get back — that’s going to live forever.
"I’ve done enough stupid things in my life. You have to live with those. But this internet thing, man, it’s a dangerous thing for people."
During an interview with Shlomo Sprung of Awful Announcing, Bob Ley of ESPN's "Outside the Lines" described Twitter simply as the "Devil's Tool."
"If you have a front-facing public persona, you do so advisably," Ley said. "I’ll lurk and I’ll read opinion leaders, but even then. I’ve got a great staff of people who are harvesting what I need to know from Twitter, so I spend a spend a lot less time there. And I find myself enjoying life a helluva lot more."
Sounds like Colangelo — and plenty of other front-office types — should take Ley's sage advice.