We know that late-night tweets are often ill advised. But according to a scientific study, NBA players tweeting late at night is actually detrimental to their play.
Stony Brook University performed the study, published on ScienceDaily.com. It found that players who tweet between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. see a noticeable dip in essentially all facets of the game.
“Preliminary data from a new study suggests that NBA players had worse personal statistics in games that followed a late-night tweet between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.,” the report said. “Players scored on average about 1 point less in games following late-night tweets, and their shooting accuracy dropped 1.7 percentage points compared with their performance in games that did not follow late-night tweeting. After a late-night tweet, players also took fewer shots and had fewer rebounds, steals and blocks.”
Well, there you have it.
A 2010 story from Bill Simmons, then with ESPN, quoted famed NBA power broker William Wesley (aka World Wide Wes) as saying “You can’t chase the night. When the night is over, the night is over. That’s just the way it is. You just gotta wake up tomorrow and hope for a better day.”
Apparently, that doesn’t only apply to clubs.
NBA players should take heed of this message. If a 140-character thought pops in your head between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., just hold off on it. The thought will still be there to be tweeted the next day.