Bill made the account less than 2 and a half days ago, and has over 10,000 followers already (and counting)! The power of the internets …

When LeBron shot his first set of free throws during Game 3 of the Boston series, I was disappointed that the Boston crowd didn’t chant either “You’re a fa-ker! You’re a fa-ker!” (to tweak him about his injured elbow) or “You’re gonna leave! You’re gonna leave!” That’s when I realized something: Thanks to Twitter, we could mobilize crowd chants almost to the minute during playoff games.

For instance, let’s say someone created a Twitter account called @CelticsChants (just for fun, I did it) and became the go-to chanting coordinator during games. Before Game 3, I post the tweet, “Chant for first LeBron FTs: ‘You’re a fa-ker! You’re a fa-ker!’” Then, during garbage time, I post another one: “If LBJ goes to line again, chant, ‘You’re gonna leave! You’re gonna leave!’” Even if 500 people at the game were following that account, wouldn’t that be enough fans to get those chants rolling so everyone in the stadium joined in? Just for fun, I’m trying this for Game 6 in Boston: www.twitter.com/celticschants.

Simmons himself calls it a "far-fetched idea" -- and that's probably what it will end up being. Not to say it can't work, it's just that in order to facilitate crowd control correctly, you'd need to have a substantial number of fans in the arena impulsively checking their Twitter accounts during the game, all of whom would be willing to start chanting -- in sync, mind you -- whatever was tweeted, shortly after getting their Twitter marching orders from General Simmons.

The first chant of the night would be pre-planned, according to Simmons' latest column, and it's entirely doable. As of this writing, he's locked in over 3,000 followers, without really trying (there's a non-hyper-linked mention in the column as well as a tweet from his own account, which has well north of a million followers).

If a decent percentage of those people are ticket-holding Celtics' fans, this WILL happen. Although worth watching are the lists that @CelticsChants is included: only one of them is Boston sports-specific, which doesn't look like a great sign. That said, a quick glance at those following Simmons' account appear to be Boston supporters, so maybe it has a chance after all.




Tags: bill simmons twitter, bill simmons