And the Number 1 overall pick goes to…

…The LA Clippers, in fact. The lottery process was pretty disappointing this year with the first eight picks come up as all chalk. The Kings (best odds at winning the Blake Griffin lottery) fell three spots down to #4 overall, and the only interesting moment was when they revealed the last three teams were the Clippers, Memphis, and Oklahoma City.

            Seeing OKC get the first pick would’ve been like a perfect storm of things for (no pun intended) the Thunder. Their next year’s starting line up would have had a combination of Russell Westbrook (one of the brightest rookie point guards in the league), Kevin Durant (perhaps the best pure-scorer in the league), Jeff Green (a high-potential forward entering his second year), and Blake Griffin (the #1 overall pick who just won nearly every collegiate award possible last year).

            Instead, the pick goes to LA’s second team. The Clips had the #1 overall pick ten years ago in 1998, and used it (unfortunately) on Michael Olowokandi. The situation really sucks for Blake Griffin. Instead of going to a team that had a very real chance of a run at the title in 2 or 3 years, he goes to a Clippers team that has some of the worst management in all of sports.

What’s worse is that the Clippers really have that “losing atmosphere” that can destroy even the most talented players. Elton Brand knew it and he left town as soon as he could. Baron Davis signed with LAC this year and immediately realized he was in for the worst year of his life. There is so much pressure on Griffin’s shoulders to turn this team around quickly, or else he’ll be enveloped in the cloud of negative attitude the same way Mr. Eko was enveloped by the Black Smoke Monster.

Brett Favre?

            To no one’s surprise, Brett Favre wants back into the league. To my surprise at least, some team actually wants him. Teams need to realize that Favre is past his time and is really nota very good quarterback anymore.

Many people are quick to point out his imploding over the last few weeks, but many people don’t realize his how bad his performance in the first few weeks really was. Favre was throwing up the same lame ducks he was in week one as he was in week 17 – the only difference is that Favre got lucky a few times in the early part of the season and he didn’t get lucky towards the end. It’s not the kind of thing that would ever show up in the box score, but when you realize that Favre is about to turn 40, has a partially torn bicep and contemplating having surgery unfamiliar to him, and working with a new system, it all points to the same message: Avoid Brett Favre.

But we know the Vikings are desperate for a quarterback to help Adrian Peterson develop. And we know Brett Favre would love nothing more than to stick it to Aaron Rodgers and the Packers for their disrespectful behavior  (according to Favre) this past summer. I’m willing to bet that if the Vikings can beat the Packers next year, the reason won’t be Favre. ADP is a stud and the Packers defense is pretty poor. Favre doesn’t change that, no matter how many records he holds or games he has won in the past.

So about this Twitter business….

            Twitter has fulfilled its apparent destiny and really taken off in the last few months. But who is Twitter, a new, internet/mobile-based social networking site most popular with? It’s actually most popular among middle-aged/older people and celebrities, while it lacks support from the high school/college crowd that is so obsessed with Facebook and MySpace.

            The reason why? Twitter is just a dumbed-down version of Facebook: it allows you to update people on your status (a la Facebook status) without the creep/stalk potential that the real Facebook gives you. It allows older people, who may not be as computer-savvy as the younger generation, to stay connected without getting to complex or sharing too much information.

            Twitter’s also great because it lets you keep up with celebrities. There used to be a time when the only time you’d hear a celebrity or athlete speak is when they gave an interview, and even then you knew the answers were so scripted that you never get a feel for the athlete’s real personality.

Twitter changes all that. There is no middleman now between celebrities and fans. Celebs have full discretion over what they say and how they say it. There’s no fear of quotes being taken out of context or having to answer questions that they don’t want to.

My question is why companies feel they can somehow convert Twitter’s popularity into something positive for the company.  Every company seems to have a Twitter now, whether it’s appropriate for them to have one or not. Recently I interviewed for a travel agency to work in the Marketing department, and they told me one of my responsiblities would be maintaining the company’s Twitter account. Why would anyone need to know what this company was doing on an up-to-the-minute basis? That’s not it though. Hulu has a Twitter, Amazon.com has a Twitter. Monster.com has a Twitter. Does anyone know why? I sure don’t. Let’s leave the tweets to the celebs and athletes (aka people we care about).