Last month, we debuted a new feature that calls attention to the best tweeters in the sports world.
A lot has happened since then, most notably Kevin Love (@Kevin_love) breaking news of Kevin McHale’s departure from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
We continue to monitor as many people as we can, but please tell us who we should be following on Twitter (@darrenrovell1) or via e-mail (SportsBiz@cnbc.com) if your favorite isn’t on this list.
Before we get started, let me say again that list isn’t ranked by followers. It’s ranked by who we think is good at the Twitter game.
1. Shaquille O’Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ): Doesn’t matter if he’s old or if it’s only one year, the Cavaliers should sign Shaq for his tweeting abilities alone. “The Big Twit” continues to stay relevant with great stunts. First it was free tickets, now it’s challenging the latest YouTube trick shot artist to a game of horse.
Best recent tweet: “i wanna play this guy n horse for a thousand dollars, find him pls http://bit.ly/CK5nk.”
2. Bill Simmons (@sportsguy33): As we pointed out last month, the ESPN.com columnist has some of the best one-liners in the business.
Best recent tweet: “If Dice-K were a sushi order, he'd be the toro roll -- expensive, hard to get + repeatedly unreliable/disappointing.”
3. Pete Carroll (@PeteCarroll): Plenty of college coaches have found their way on to Twitter and 99 percent of it isn’t any good. Carroll continues to provide good content. Before any news organization wrote anything official, he tweeted about Kevin O’Neill becoming USC’s next basketball coach.
Best recent tweet: “Bowling against the mayor! Strike on the first roll... That's what I'm talking about!”
4. Chad Ochocinco (@OGOchoCinco): Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver is, as expected, a crack a minute on Twitter and answers a ton questions from his 18,000 followers. This month, he even took us inside his team physical.
Best recent tweet: “T.O. says get you popcorn Ocho Cinco says go get ROSETTA STONE to understand me this year.”
5. Ian Poulter (@Ianjamespoulter): Last month’s rankings had Stewart Cink, John Daly and Michelle Wie, but Ian Poulter has since come on the scene and has proven to be the best athlete golf insider in a short time. Even though he later said he didn’t tweet during play, the picture of his muddy ball at the U.S. Open might have been the most interesting Twitpic in sports tweeting land.
Best recent tweet: “When r airports going to use comon sense again. I had to give away my mike weir wine ,they refused to let me take it through the scanner.”
6. Evan Morgenstein (@sportsagentevan): Olympic sports agent to Nastia Liukin and Dara Torres has never cared what others think of him. The result? Imagine if you never censored anything that came out of your mouth.
Best recent tweet: “Is it me or does Giselle Bunchen being preggo just ruin the entire fantasy?
7. Mark Titus (@clubtrillion): I met Ohio State basketball walk-on Mark Titus at the Final Four a couple years ago and found him to be hilarious. Check out this YouTube clip. I started following Titus’ blog and then on Twitter. There’s a lot of sophomoric humor, but I can’t wait to see what he’ll do during basketball season. There has to be a tweet from the bench. At 3,843 followers, Titus is already the most popular walk-on since Rudy.
Best Recent tweet: “What crime has the coolest name? My vote goes to embezzlement, with fraud in a close second.”
8. Jennifer Sterger (@jennifersterger): Almost four years after she was discovered on that famous college football broadcast, Jenn Sterger has continued to make herself relevant through social media. She’s has 98,000 fewer followers than Alyssa Milano, but we think she’s a better mix of sex and sports.
Best recent tweet: “Scott Kazmir seeking advice from Rick Peterson is like..my ex seeking dating advice from me. But, whatever breaks the curse.”
9. Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi): Sports Illustrated writer based in Los Angeles did a great job of tweeting from the NBA Finals with unique notes with plenty of pictures.
Best recent tweet: “After the Finals Kobe and Fish were the only 2 players still in their uniforms at the team party at the hotel.”
10. Serena Williams (@serenajwilliams): Serena Williams hadn’t really generated a whole lot of buzz to her 400,000+ followers until this past week when she went postal on Wimbledon’s “no eating” rules in the locker room.
Best recent tweet: “Hey! We are NOT allowed to eat in the locker room but, they are placing bananas KIT KATS out. Now, how do you consume those food items?”
