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Earl Watson doesn't want his Phoenix Suns following other NBA players on Twitter

Kelly Dwyer
Earl Watson chides away. (Getty Images)
Earl Watson chides away. (Getty Images)

Phoenix Suns rookie head coach Earl Watson would like it if his young team would decline to follow potential opponents on Twitter, if they wouldn’t mind. He’d like to keep the bridges icy between potential combatants, unwarmed by the light of social media outreach.

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Seems a bit rash, you’ll agree, but do understand that the 37-year old Watson (in his first full season as Suns coach) isn’t exactly making this a team-wide decree.

Still. From Paul Coro at the Arizona Republic:

Watson has many relationships in the NBA but he makes it clear that he “could care less” about them once it is game day against them. Case in point, he said he did not talk Friday to Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, who he has mentored since he was at UCLA.

“We respect the other team but it’s not an admirational game,” Watson said. “We don’t admire them so much, like, ‘One day we want to be like them.’ I don’t even like our guys to follow other guys on Twitter. This Twitter friend, Instagram friend, let’s cut them off. Say hi to them in the summer.”

Again, Earl Watson was born in 1979. He, like this author, no doubt spent a healthy chunk of his time in college conferring with others his age via AOL Instant Messenger or ICQ, and Watson’s NBA playing career (which lasted until 2014) spanned the age of immediate post-game texts to a potential future teammate in Miami.

This isn’t some dottering septuagenarian, thrashing away at the sight of fire and the Direct Message option. This Suns coach is two years younger than Paul Pierce. Earl Watson, though we do not have the pictures to prove as much, has probably danced shirtless to “Hot in Herre.”

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This is an exceptionally tough hope to have in line considering the transient nature of just about every NBA basketball player that isn’t named “Dirk Nowitzki.” Pierce has been on four different NBA teams since the spring of 2013. Vince Carter is on his sixth NBA team since the winter of 2004. These guys move around.

Suns veterans Jared Dudley and Tyson Chandler, for instance, have plenty of ex-teammates left behind them. Dudley is on his sixth NBA team, counting the Suns twice, and Chandler is on his seventh (counting Dallas twice). Neither appears to be shaken by their role as a must-follow on Twitter.

Then again, Chandler might be Watson’s go-to hero in this instance.

The center just recently turned 34, and of the 116 accounts he follows on Twitter (in comparison to the 824k that follow him) only 12 belong to active NBA players: Stephen Curry, Dirk, Jeremy Lin, Carmelo Anthony, Jamal Crawford, Steve Novak, Chris Paul, Jose Juan Barea, Kevin Love, the dastardly Russell Westbrook, Rudy Gay and Jason Terry.

Watson follows a handful of current NBA players on his account and, to his credit, only follows one NBA head coach: Los Angeles Clippers boss Doc Rivers (though Watson does follow a litany of basketball types that have the potential to run an NBA team at some point). Watson also follows Russell Westbrook on Twitter.

Again, Earl Watson is hardly laying down the law here with his young Suns (0-3 on the 2016-17 season, entering Monday night), nor is he blaming 140 characters at a time for his team’s slow start. Even if the Suns don’t have the best history in understanding those who aren’t of a certain age, and born into money.

Half of the NBA (and most certainly the Suns this season) will have mid-April until late September “off” during their particular offseason, so it only makes sense that the head coach of a struggling team would like to see some laser focus during the autumn and winter months.

Earl Watson’s not going to win this one, though. There’s too much to love on Twitter:

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!