The NBA is fully embracing Twitter for All-Star weekend. It was just announced that the fan voting for the All-Star Game MVP will be done on Twitter. Straight from the NBA:
The NBA has unveiled hashtag-triggered Twitter emojis for all 24 NBA All-Stars. The #NBAAllStarTO emojis, revealed on Twitter by entering #firstnamelastname (i.e. #stephencurry, #lebronjames), are now live through Monday, Feb. 15.
For the first time, the Kia NBA All-Star MVP Award fan vote will be conducted exclusively through Twitter. Beginning at the start of the fourth quarter of Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game on TNT, fans can register MVP votes during a 30-minute window by tweeting #KiaAllStarMVP and #firstnamelastname in the same tweet.
Let’s crack into the new emojis starting with the East:
My favorite out of these has to be the PG-13 ticket stub, it makes too much sense. LeBron’s crown is dope, but boy did they have to stretch to find something for Paul Millsap and Andre Drummond- even though the drum is pretty funny.
Now for the West:
The talent on has better potential because of their nicknames. In my world, Kawhi should have been cornrows, Steph Curry could have had a bucket, Durant with a piece of iceberg lettuce (Iceberg Slim) or a grim reaper (Slim Reaper), and don’t even tell me that Russell Westbrook wasn’t a sandwich.
The broadcasters won’t be left out. They will also have emojis triggered by #firstnamelastname for the Inside the NBA crew, with the exception of Shaq, where you would use #shaq to get the emoji.
For the fan voting, retweets count up to 100 times and the fan vote winner will account for 25 percent of the overall vote.
The NBA is also bringing back “Kicks Cam” for All-Star weekend. The NBA will tweet Vines of players’ sneakers just before they hit the court each night of the weekend.