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NBA: 20 Past Players That Would Have Owned Twitter

By Bill Speros

Nov 11, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The NBA Canada Twitter logo is displayed on a signboard and reflected in the floor before the Toronto Raptors game against the Orlando Magic at Air Canada Centre. The Raptors beat the Magic 104-100. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 11, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; The NBA Canada Twitter logo is displayed on a signboard and reflected in the floor before the Toronto Raptors game against the Orlando Magic at Air Canada Centre. The Raptors beat the Magic 104-100. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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PORTLAND, UNITED STATES: Portland Trail Blazers Bonzi Wells reacts to a call in Portland, Oregon, 28 April, 2002, during the second half of game three against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. The Lakers won the game 92-91 and the series 3-0. AFP PHOTO/JOHN GRESS (Photo credit should read JOHN GRESS/AFP/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, UNITED STATES: Portland Trail Blazers Bonzi Wells reacts to a call in Portland, Oregon, 28 April, 2002, during the second half of game three against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs. The Lakers won the game 92-91 and the series 3-0. AFP PHOTO/JOHN GRESS (Photo credit should read JOHN GRESS/AFP/Getty Images) /

18. Bonzi Wells

Thankfully, Bonzi Wells was at his most outrageous as a player just before the spread and proliferation of Twitter. In a 10-year career beginning in 1998, Wells managed to play his way onto and off of five different teams.

As an original “Jail Blazer,” Wells was a primary voice on a team that routinely found its players fighting opponents on the court, and each other and the law off it. Wells’ time in Portland peaked with a 45-point performance against Dallas in the 2003 playoffs.

By the middle of the next season, however, he was gone. Incredibly, in 2001, when asked about Portland’s fans booing the team, he responded with this:

"“They really don’t matter to us. They can boo us every day but they are still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street. That’s why they are fans and we are NBA players.”"

That was pre-social-media or the ensuing Twitter storm may have shut down the internet cloud. In 2009, he spoke with regret and gratitude about his time in Portland.

"“I want to apologize for the bad, the way things went down as a whole. And that’s from my heart,” he told OregonLive.com."

Among the “bad” were fines or suspensions for a heated argument with his coach, hitting an official, and making an obscene gesture toward a fan. In the same 2009 interview, he sought forgiveness from the fans for his 2001 remark.

"“That’s when everything went south,” Wells said. “Sometimes you don’t handle things as well as you should have. But people don’t understand when you come from nothing and then have it all … there’s no book to tell you what to do … I should have gone on the record, and on Portland television and explain that I would never say anything like that about the fans. That was a hard time. It hurt me.”"

Next: Hall Of Fame Shooter, Talker