These Are The Seven Team Twitter Accounts That All NBA Fans Have To Follow

The NBA is really, really good at social media. The league itself has the perfect voice for a professional sports league online (serious, but understands how great basketball is), while its teams are given the freedom to do basically anything they want. Well, sometimes — teams disparaging opposing players and teams using emojis to articulate shooting an opponent’s mascot are both bad.

But still! At their best, NBA team Twitter accounts are better than NFL, MLB, and NHL Twitter accounts. (Although in fairness, the NHL has some really incredible team Twitter accounts that deserve a ton of love.)

With the 2017 season having its first full day of games on Wednesday, we decided to let you know which teams you have to follow if you’re on Twitter. While every team has its high points, these teams stick out as the best.

7. Miami Heat

So the thing with the Heat is that their Twitter account can be kind of bland — it just churns out newsy stuff, nothing too wild. But I need to talk about their nickname for Dion Waiters, which is incredible.

Someone in the team’s marketing department decided to use the hashtag #PhillyCheese when referring to Waiters. It is amazing.

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/824636783698718721

There are just so many tweets…

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/831325167297101827

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/838907695918903296

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/839671834178117633

…in which they call Waiters…

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/840934413995204608

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/841052111148326916

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/883493889872719873

… #PhillyCheese.

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/898658389873627138

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/903749760099733504

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/915276213278662657

I would like to call on Miami mayor Tomás Pedro Regalado and Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney to make #PhillyCheese Day a thing in both of their cities, with the people who run the Heat’s Twitter account getting the honor of cutting a ribbon or something. Oh, and Waiters can be in attendance, too.

6. Memphis Grizzlies

When it comes to being fun, interactive, and letting their voice be crafted by a community, the Grizzlies might be the best in the league. They love highlighting what people around the franchise have to say, whether they be players, coaches, executives, whatever. Just take Tuesday night, when they wanted to highlight the way their players reacted to Gordon Hayward’s ankle injury and retweeted a few people on the roster.

Really, there may not be a more personal account than the Grizzlies. It feels like it’s ran by folks who love basketball, love the team, and want to share as much cool stuff as possible, whether it be shirts that popped up thanks to an angry David Fizdale press conference …

… or highlights. They’re really good at highlights. Here are a few from the team’s preseason slate.

https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/919024736142729216

5. Golden State Warriors

Wow, the Warriors are good at something, who would have ever thought that?

Running a Twitter account for the best team in the NBA seems like the thing that would be easy, if only because you’re given the room you want to talk a whole bunch of smack. But the thing is you have to be able to do this in a way that’s kind of tactful and comes off as fun and playful and not mean. The Warriors’ social team has found a way to do this.

https://twitter.com/warriors/status/603770712982040576/photo/1

They can make jokes at their own expense, and they’ve found a way to be pretty humble, even after a loss.

https://twitter.com/warriors/status/744723138475237376/video/1

But Golden State’s best contribution to Twitter came when Steph Curry visited a basketball camp and made a child faint. It ruled.

https://twitter.com/warriors/status/750131507524579328/video/1

Basketball players should surprise children more often.

4. Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks are so, so good at this. They’re just incredibly funny and silly and embrace the weirdness of basketball better than any other NBA team. It makes me mad that we’re not all as clever as the people behind the Hawks’ Twitter account.

Most notably, the team has gotten into the habit of using emojis to tweet out their schedule. Again, it’s a smart, clever way to announce something that every other team announces at the exact same time.

There was the time that they made topical content during the eclipse, which made me laugh.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/899654267971280896

And there is the thing they do better than anyone: Clown the rest of Twitter about trades.

There was also the time they negotiated a trade with the Hornets’ official Twitter account, which was fantastic.

Sadly, neither Adrian Wojnarowski nor Shams Charania confirmed whether this deal was approved by the league offices.

3. Sacramento Kings

Somehow, these people make running the Twitter account for a small-market team that has gone through an extended postseason drought look easy. This is partly because when it comes to talking smack, the best NBA Twitter account we have comes via the Sacramento Kings.

Here are a whole bunch of Kangz tweets in here. Every one is hilarious. They have figured out talking smack in a way that they should lead a symposium on how to do this at the next NBA Twitter Account Summit. (There is no way this is a thing that happens, but it should be.)

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/824451585098919936

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/824455314053464064/video/1

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/814253085530812416

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/818288079165239297

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/819707938247819264/photo/1

On the topic of their relationship with the Lakers, this video belongs in the Smithsonian.

https://twitter.com/SacramentoKings/status/887114727146405888/video/1

With how much fun the Kings Twitter account is now, imagine how much more fun it will be if the team is able to turn its recent youth movement into wins. Hey, on that note, let’s talk about the Sixers.

2. Philadelphia 76ers

The last few years of Sixers basketball have been rough, so it says a lot that they can have a consistently fun and engaging Twitter account as the team has gone through The Process. The phrase “it’s easier to follow the Twitter account than it is to follow the team” may sound a bit mean, but in the context of the Sixers, that’s because they have a really great Twitter account.

The thing that makes the Sixers so fun online is the relentless optimism. That and the fact that the person(s) behind the account just, like, get that Philadelphia is a sports city where everyone wants to see everyone else succeed.

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/789531350940409856/photo/1

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/820076633277235204/photo/1

https://twitter.com/sixers/status/906872168100835328/photo/1

On that last thing, they have Joel Embiid. Having Embiid on your team makes running a Twitter account easy, because he has an inherent connection to Sixers fans to the point that retweets are easy as long as he’s involved.

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/815761008455204864/photo/1

https://twitter.com/sixers/status/920317239378751488/photo/1

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/813051691373330433/photo/1

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/817038933183893504/photo/1

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/820063722861305856/video/1

https://twitter.com/Sixers/status/839168679652777985/photo/1

There was also that time they more or less confirmed the reports that the Sixers were going to trade up and get Markelle Fultz with two tweets.

https://twitter.com/sixers/status/876240078930153472/photo/1

https://twitter.com/sixers/status/876228308828139520/photo/1

It’s crazy how just being aware of what’s going on around you makes your Twitter account way more fun. For that reason, the Sixers’ Twitter account is great.

1. Portland Trail Blazers

The only thing more dominant than the Warriors’ current run of success is Portland’s current run as the undisputed kings of NBA Twitter. Sure, they’ve crossed the line in the past, but the Blazers’ Twitter account is consistently the best in the league. If the Grizzlies have the NBA’s most personal Twitter account, Portland has the one that feels the most like it is run by a bunch of basketball fans who are drop dead hilarious when they’re off the clock.

They have zero problem using Twitter to get a laugh at an opposing player’s expense, but it’s in the context of something that happens during a game. It’s incredible.

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/724811482597314563/photo/1

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/853724952054210560/photo/1

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/721930371038711809/photo/1

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/825190757921206272/photo/1

They also know how to be incredible self-deprecating, as evidenced by their tweet after they lost to the Warriors in the 2017 Western Conference Quarterfinals, especially during the final game of the series where Portland got blown out.

If you run the Blazers Twitter account and are reading this, I beg you, do not ever log off.