Twitter : Who To Follow

It's hard to find a professional athlete that is worth following on Twitter. Most athletes either don't have an account, don't use their account, or have someone tweet for them.  I came up with a list of my ten favorite athletes to follow and list the reasons why.  I tried, (I said TRIED) to stay away from the obvious big name athletes and give you some surprising less known names.  Some big name guys as you will see just had to make the list.

1.  Landry Fields - @landryfields - 2,900 Tweets

Starting Shooting Guard for the New York Knicks.  Landry is not going to be someone who tweets a lot, in fact he almost never answers any fans.  He doesn't re-tweet the fans begging for it, but when he tweets it usually is of some importance. He is very funny to follow too, often joking around and showing comical videos of himself.  During the season he is less active on his account but still worth the follow.

 2. Mark Ingram - @Mark_Ingram28 - 4,700 Tweets

Running back for the New Orleans Saints.  Mark Ingram is nothing like Landry, he answers his fans very often.  He actually answered me twice before, (I had to pretend to be a Saints fan for the first one).  Ingram tweets often and tweets about other sports a lot.  He asks his followers for opinions and answers the best replies.  Ingram likes Rap music, often tweeting his favorite new rap lyrics.

 3. Terrell Thomas - @TerrellThomas24 -10,200 Tweets

Starting Corner Back for the New York Giants. Don't know who Terrell Thomas is? Here's a quick fact, Thomas had more tackles and interceptions in his 2010 season than Darrell Revis had the past two seasons combined. Thomas is a great follow!  He gives trivia questions about him and his teammates and whoever answers him first gets free tickets.  I have tried many times and have failed to win one of his trivia questions, but it's fun to give a try.  Very active with his fans and gives detail about his every day life.

 4. Brandon Phillips - @DatDudeBP - 4,900 Tweets

Starting second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.  Phillips is just hilarious.  One of the greatest personalities in sports today.  He answers a ton of fans and is just fun to follow.  He is more active during the baseball season surprisingly.  He re-tweets fans, replies, does it all.  Phillips also gives the inside scoop on his daily routine.

 5. Jared Dudley - @JaredDudley619 - 10,000 Tweets

Starting Forward for the Phoenix Suns.  Dudley is another guy who loves his fans.  If he wants to know something he seems to simply ask his followers.  After a tough loss this year Dudley went to his fans and simply asked what they thought the team was doing wrong.  You don't see many athletes this interactive with fans.  He took the most honest answers and told his followers that he agreed with them.  He also gave away free tickets to whoever designed him a new profile picture for his account. Well worth the follow.

6.Prince Amukamara-@PrinceAmukamara-3,000Tweets

Rookie Corner for the New York Giants.  Prince is another guy who is just fun to follow.  He gives ten minutes whenever he can to answer as many fan questions as possible.  He tells his fans to fire away and will answer any question including when his first kiss was, he claimed it was in kindergarten.  Very active too with his fans and asks for advice like, where is the best place to go for pizza? Or even, What car dealership should I go to in New York for a new car?

7. Joba Chamberlain - @Joba_62 - 3,100 Tweets

Relief Pitcher for the New York Yankees.  Joba is another great character.  If you don't like the Rangers you might get a little annoyed with his proud New York Ranger fan tweets.  He is another guy who loves his fans.  I had a conversation with him via Twitter about how he needs some more followers.  He has gained thousands since then so maybe he took my words seriously.  

 8. Jamal Crawford - @JCrossover - 7,000 Tweets

Starting Shooting Guard for the Portland Trail Blazers.  Jamal is very new to Twitter with his account being only months old.  As you can see with his tweet count he has no problem tweeting.  Jamal likes to talk to his fans after games, so with him living in Portland his tweets come very late at night.  When he was a free agent this summer he would re-tweet his fans of people begging him to come play for a certain team.  He talks to other famous athletes over twitter also which is always fun to see.

 9. Reggie Bush - @Reggie_Bush - 2,700 Tweets

Starting Running Back for the Miami Dolphins.  Reggie doesn't tweet too often but he does tweet some interesting things.  He lets his followers know when he is watching sports, and always admires, and gives credit to athletes who are doing well.  He has an insane amount of followers at over 2 million, so I guess it's no secret that he deserves a follow.

10.  LeBron James - @KingJames - 2,400 Tweets

I know I said I was going to stay away from the big name athletes but lets be honest here, you can't not follow LeBron James.  This man gets criticized for everything he says, and analysts even bash him for some of his tweets.  LeBron is obviously a great follow.  He talks about how his team should get better, and even admires other basketball players performances (Kendrick Perkins was not a fan of this).  LeBron had to make the list

Just Blame Carmelo, Right?

Let me start with this, I am a huge Knicks, Giants, Yankees, and Devils fan.  I am proud to be a fan of all these teams except for one team, the Knicks.  Not because of how they play, but because how pathetic most Knick fans are. 

The Knicks lost last night to the New Jersey Nets in Carmelo Anthony's return from a pulled groin.  The media has been all over the fact that the Knicks have done great without him.  Knick fans are saying that when he comes back he is going to, "ruin the team".  Do you forget how good Carmelo Anthony is? Do you forget how he single handedly gave the Knicks a chance to beat Boston in game one and two of the playoffs? Do you forget how excited you were when the Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony last year?  And of course, the loss last night to the Nets was all Carmelo's fault, right? I think it's pathetic.

Don't get me wrong, Melo was rusty.  He turned the ball over and missed a couple shots that he usually makes, but there were other things to put this loss on.  How about the fact that Kris Humphries completely outplayed Tyson Chandler.  He got Chandler into foul trouble early, hustled more than Tyson and also got under Tyson's skin giving him yet another technical foul.  Humphries finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.  Now, on to Deron Williams.  Let's just say he was on fire.  He set a personal record with 8 3 pointers, and finished with 38 points.  Jeremy Lin, Baron Davis, and J.R Smith all could not defend him.  That wasn't Melo's fault was it?  You had to see this coming too, the Nets were the first team to start the Linsanity.  Deron Williams was going to be focused, and they were going to want to beat the Knicks down.  Enough with the blame game Knicks fans, can't we ever say the opposing team just played better? 

Jeremy Lin is Linning

Who would have ever thought that an Asian born basketball player would have New York City in the palm of his hand. The Knicks were an embarrassment all year and coach Mike D'Antoni was so close to being fired. That was until 6 foot 3 200 pound Jeremy Lin came off the bench against the Nets last week. He scored 25 off the bench against one of the best Point Guards in the world, that was just the beginning. Lin brought the Knicks back in that game vs the Nets to get their first win in 10 games. After that he had himself another great game, and win, over the Jazz. People still needed to see more, so the Knicks went down to Washington and Lin had a third solid game in a row beating John Wall and company.

Many people thought his first big test was agaisnt the Lakers. A physical Derek Fisher, Kobe, and two seven footers in the lane if Lin decided to take it to the basket. Let's just say he did alright, scoring 38 in the Knicks 4th straight victory. He couldn't be denied. The man from Harvard can play, it's an absolutely amazing story. Looking forward, it will be interesting to see how Amare and Melo will play with Lin once they return. I think Amare will love what Lin does because he is a great pick and roll point guard. Melo I am more nervous about. His ball stopping one on one offense will take away from what Lin does. I don't think he will do that though, I see him stopping the ball less because he has seen first hand on the bench what Lin can do. It really is amazing what one opportunity can do for a player, team, coach and city. Lin has taken advantage of that opportunity and then some. If D'Antoni doesn't take Lin off the bench in that Nets game who knows what would have happened. The Knicks were looking to release Lin and D'Antoni would most likely have been fired. It's safe to say D'Antoni saved himself, thanks to Jeremy Lin.

Giants Champions Again

What a game.  This was one of the most anticipated Super Bowls ever, and it sure lived up to the hype.  Both Quarterbacks on fire, both defenses having to make small adjustments at halftime, and both coaches trying to out smart each other.  The Giants were dominating play early in the game taking a 9-0 lead into the second quarter. Eli Manning set a record,completing his first nine passes as he looked to be in the zone.  Tom Brady then wanted to set a record of his own and completed 16 straight passes.  The Giants looked like they couldn't cover the Patriots if they had fifteen on the field.  I thought the Patriots taking the lead into the half 10-9 was going to be deflating to the Giants because the Giants out played the Patriots for the majority of the half.  As the game went on in the second half we got the feeling that this was going to come down to a game winning drive.  Eli had the ball at the Giants 12 and had to go 88 yards in about three minutes.  Like he did all year he marched down the field highlighted by an amazing throw and catch from Manning to Manningham.  Tom Brady had about a minute left which is a ton of time for Tom Brady.  The key play was a pass intended for Deion Branch over the middle of the field that was deflected away by Kenny Phillips.  When you watch the replay if Tom Brady simply put air under the ball and lead Branch some more he would have ran right by the flat footed Phillips.  It came down to a hail mary throw to end the game which was very close but it fell to the ground giving the Giants franchise another Super Bowl victory.

Super Bowl Sunday

The most anticipated game of any sport is finally here, and for me (die hard Giants fan), I am very excited.  I am a fan of everything that the Super Bowl has to offer which is great commercials, half time performances, non stop food, and of course the greatest sport in the world, football.  I most likely won't be able to enjoy the commercials this year though because every commercial break I will be stressing out about any bad plays the Giants had prior to the break.  

Most people want to be a part of a big party, go out to a bar or restaurant, not me though.  I have to watch the game with Giants fans only.  I'm going over to my friends house to watch the game for a couple of reasons.  First I want to be able to hear the game and the broadcast, something I might not be able to do at a party or bar.  Second would be how annoyed I would get by anyone who is not rooting for the Giants.  The last reason would be that us Giants fans can think and talk about the game and how it's going.  Today is going to be a long day of food and football and I'm ready for every second of it!