Last Thursday, the 8,475 Twitter followers of Dahntay Jones - the former Nuggets guard who just signed with the Indiana Pacers - were greeted to a hip-hop lyric and a personal message:
At the end of the racially slurred lyric by Rick Ross, the message said: "the Nuggets did me dirty." A half-hour later, Jones' Twitter (@dahntay) sent this update: "FYI ? my cousin put up that Rick ross quote. But it does fit. Lol."
So it seems, Jones (his cousin too) was indeed miffed the Nuggets didn't offer him a four-year contract like his new team did. Through Twitter, we were treated to the raw revelation of an athlete's true feelings, far from the clich?-laden locker room
interviews. We also were treated to some raw rap lyrics and lewd language. And other Nuggets such as J.R. Smith and Sonny Weems occasionally tweet the vile "N" word.
As the Internet becomes more sophisticated, it becomes more personal. Sports fans get a glimpse inside a star's Escalade or entourage. It's fascinating, because right now it's like the Wild West - there aren't any rules or regulations. So, on occasion, you will get a brutally honest and real depiction of a guard with his guard down. Twitter is the modern-
day "Ball Four."
For instance, Smith - before he went to jail for his role in a fatal car accident - made an inadvertent Internet splash last month via a Web camera. Smith's friend Eddy Curry,
a New York Knicks center, actually broadcast online via dashboard
webcam, featuring one of Colorado's more popular athletes constantly cussing and asking women to e-mail lascivious snapshots, which he would then show the audience.
Now, some athletes use the Internet as a way to correspond with fans, which is a really cool concept. Shaquille O'Neal, most famously, posts truthful, telling and titillating tweets.
On the other hand, this whole thing is pretty perilous. Some athletes blur the line between hero and dude. For instance, kids (or anyone, really) shouldn't have to see their
favorite players using four-letter words that aren't dunk, pass or shot. And some athletes, it seems, are forgetting their roles as role models. (Not that athletes are purposely trying to insult folks by using the "N" word; on the contrary, they probably just forgot that all of the 8,475 aren't their close friends.)
It's foreseen that NBA teams and agents will soon full-court press the fun, and athletes' Internet correspondence will be regulated. So for now, let's take a cautious look into our heroes' lives - which, by doing so, could serve as a cautionary tale for them.
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Benjamin Hochman covers the NBA. Contact: 303-954-1294 or
bhochman
@denverpost.com
