Over the past season, NBA fans have no doubt noticed the impact Twitter has had on the NBA and players have begun to suffer the consequences, occasionally getting in serious trouble as a result of using Twitter to interact with fans. Oddly enough, Twitter hasn't had the same impact on other professional sports nearly as much as the NBA. Binary Basketball has even created a Basketball Twitter Directory which we had to expand and create a whole sub-entry for the NBA Players on Twitter. Even beyond that and one of the reasons it gets as much traffic as it does, is because of the number of fake accounts that exist where everyday people impersonate NBA players  With lightning like speed, NBA players have begun to use Twitter and just as fast, NBA players are getting in serious trouble on Twitter and are closing their accounts.

NBA Twitter Trouble

It all started with Charlie Villanueva getting in trouble when he sent a tweet during halftime. This caused a little bit of an uproar for a little while and even became a joke when Shaq decided to tweet during halftime and sent the message "Shhhhh". When asked, Shaq said, "I was going to do it and not get in trouble, then brag about not getting in trouble." Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry responded with "As long as he gets 25 and 11, he can do whatever he wants. He can Twitter, Facebook, Myspace."

That is all minor though when it comes to some of the recent trouble players have been getting themselves in with Twitter. All of that is small time when compared to some of the issues NBA players are having now.

The NBA's troubled relationship with Twitter wouldn't be complete, or legit for that matter, without Mark Cuban getting fined because of a Twitter comment. I bet you all forgot about that one. You see, even though it was Charlie Villanueva who got in trouble first, Mark Cuban is the man who practically invents new ways to get fined in the NBA. It's because of this that Cuban was quick to follow Villanueva and stir up some Twitter trouble.

Once Mark Cuban got his innevitible fine out of the way, he paved the way for the rest of the league to become inventive with new ways for NBA fans to watch their players both do and say stupid things on Twitter causing them to eventually close their accounts.

JR Smith got in touch with his inner thug by sending gang related tweets just days after being released from jail. After the JR Smith gang related tweets became popular as a result of increased discussion from the Denver Post website, JR Smith decided to call it quits.

Not to feel left out or anything, Stephon Marbury went crazy after using Twitter and Justin.tv to send messages to fans and lifecast himself in what we dubbed as Stephon Marbury's epic marathon on webcam.

But even after all that, and in just one season, we don't have enough. Our brand new Binary Basketball blogger discussed the offseason NBA drama a little bit, including our most recent incident involving Michael Beasley which thus far, takes the cake as the most serious trouble an NBA player has had with Twitter.

The Michael Beasley Twitter Trouble

Michael Beasley has apparently been feeling down lately and sent a couple of tweets that caused allegedly caused him to enter a rehab facility to be treated for "various" issues including depression. Though, that was never news until Michael Beasley decided to show everybody his new tattoo on Twitter which allegedly display 2 bags of Marijuana on the coffee table.

Whether or not those plastic bags on the coffee table contain weed has now become just a sub-topic in the conversation of the problems Michael Beasley is facing. While he is still in rehabilitation at the moment, not even Michael Beasley's father understood just how bad it was.

Michael Beasley's father said, "I was surprised, because I didn't know that it was to this extent" when talking about the pressures Beasley faces as a result of his basketball career.

What is the future of Twitter for the NBA?

The future of Twitter in the NBA is much harder to predict for the league as a whole than it is for individual players that have gotten in trouble using the social networking site. The NBA has seemingly fully supported Twitter and even uses numerous accounts itself to promote the NBA as well as fan/player relations.

Because Twitter is such an effective promotional method to take advantage of and because of David Stern's desire to continue to expand the league, I don't see the NBA's use of Twitter decreasing any time soon. Especially when only half of the teams are turning a profit.

Unfortunately for the fans, I do predict an increase in rules and regulations enforced by the league. The NBA as a business is very competant and they do very well. I'm not quite sure how the NBA would accomplish regulating it's players on Twitter though but as more and more players continue to get in trouble on Twitter, you can be sure David Stern will think of something. I'm just hoping it doesn't decrease the ability for fans to interract with their favorite players.