Which Boston Sports Personalities to Follow on Twitter

Sports Illustrated got us thinking about who we turn to on Twitter for Boston sports news.
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Sports Illustrated recently released its annual list of the top 100 Twitter personalities, and while we appreciate their recommendation that we follow Lebron … it also prompted us to consider what our list of Boston-centric personalities would look like.  After all, with a new NHL season, the Red Sox four wins away from a World Series appearance, a 4-1 start for the Patriots, and the Celtics seemingly destined to be the butt of many a 140-character joke, there’s a lot to keep caught up on. Here are some of our favorite follows:

NBA

Paul Flannery @Pflanns

Flannery is an NBA writer for SB Nation and teaches journalism at Boston University. He’s currently on a mission to preview every team in the Eastern Conference before the start of the season.

Kirk Goldsberry @kirkgoldsberry

If you’re a visual learner, Goldsberry, a visiting scholar at Harvard and Grantland contributor, is as good as it gets. Goldsberry maps individual NBA players’ shot attempts (he’s expanded to the NFL, plotting the distribution of quarterback completions) to determine where on the floor they are most and least effective as scorers.

Zach Lowe @ZachLowe_NBA

Lowe, another Grantlander with Boston connections, is the preeminent NBA writer on the net. He covers all 30 NBA teams and relies heavily on film analysis and advanced statistics. 

Jeff Clark @CelticsBlog

CelticsBlog.com, SB Nation’s Celtics site, is a must-read for Cs fans and is another example of the tremendous NBA coverage being done online. Clark and the other contributing writers take a Lowean approach, providing smart and often humorous analysis.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP

Grande, the Celtics’ radio play-by-play announcer for the past 15 years, is among the most respected broadcasters in the NBA. He’s also the voice of the Frozen Four and has spent the summer broadcasting Red Sox games.

Jeff Green @unclejeffgreen

If you’re not a fan of Drake or Catfish, then this is probably a stay-away, but Green tweets some gems among the slew of lyrics and Catfish reactions. As far as we can tell, Katy Perry never acknowledged Green’s crush.

Ben Rohrbach @brohrbach

Rohrbach writes a blog, Green Street, for WEEI where, in addition to his written coverage, he uploads a number of player interviews, available for his audience. In general any added element that brings your audience closer to the story is a positive. 

MLB

Tim Britton @timbritton

Britton, the Providence Journal’s Red Sox beat writer, is especially adept at bringing the locker room to his followers. He tweets about his experiences around the team more than most beat writers in a way that is very accessible.

Gordon Edes @GordonEdes

Edes is ESPN Boston’s Red Sox beat writer, and this year you can’t get enough of those. Not as anecdotal as Britton, Edes tweets more in-game details. The two would complement each other nicely in a Red Sox beat writer list.

Will Middlebrooks @Middlebrooks

Middlebrooks’s feed is everything you could hope for from a professional athlete: funny, sincere, and generally lacking in clichéd, motivational messages about working harder.

Alex Speier @alexspeier

We would be remiss to leave Speier off the list after he was (unofficially) voted Boston’s best Red Sox beat writer by Deadspin readers earlier this summer.

NFL

Greg Bedard @GregABedard

The final product looks different, but Bedard is the NFL media’s version of Lowe. Few NFL writers are as dedicated to analyzing and understanding film as Bedard, who writes like a coach-converted-journalist He recently moved to MMQB from the Boston Globe, so he’s especially well schooled on the Patriots.

Jeff Howe @jeffphowe

Howe distinguishes himself from a crop of great Patriot beat writers through a continuous supply of information to his readers. His Twitter account is very active, and when covering a team like the Patriots, there is rarely a dull moment.

 Devin McCourty @McCourtyTwins

If you follow Devin McCourty you actually get the added bonus of following his twin brother Jason as well. The McCourty twins are good natured on Twitter where they interact with fans, promote their charitable work, and give us a sense of what it’s like to play in the NFL (x2).

 New England Patriots @Patriots

The dynamic between front office and media relations can be strange at times, but the Patriots have found a balance that works. The team’s official account often breaks news about player transactions and is a good source player information that you don’t get from other sources.

Mike Reiss @MikeReiss

Reiss is the gold standard for beat writers. He’s as tapped into the Patriots organization as anyone and has an impressive understanding of the bigger picture. Tracking snaps is one of the staples of his reporting.

Field Yates @FieldYates

Reiss’s colleague at ESPN Boston, Yates covers league-wide stories and is a go-to fantasy football resource, in addition to his beat with the Patriots.

NHL

Ryan Whitney @ryanwhitney6

The Panthers’ net minder is a Scituate, Mass. native and is an avid sports fan who often shares his two cents with his more-than-100,000 followers.

Joe McDonald @ESPNJoeyMac

Just about your one-stop shop for all things Boston sports. McDonald is ESPN Boston’s beat writer for both the Bruins and Red Sox and makes a concerted effort to examine the similarities in approach between the different franchises.

Other

Michael McCann @michaelmccannsportslaw

A Massachusetts attorney who represented Maurice Clarett in his attempt to declare early for the NFL Draft, McCann is as reputable a source as there is on Aaron Hernandez’s trial and future prospects

Bob Ryan @GlobeBobRyan

If you can forgive him the occasional blank tweet here and there, Ryan usually does a pretty good job sharing his insights via Twitter. After all, it can’t be easy to condense his wisdom into just 140 characters.

Bill Simmons @BillSimmons

It’s difficult to include Simmons on a list like this, but ultimately it’s harder to omit him. Most of his tweets are Grantland related, but when Simmons discusses Boston sports, he doesn’t hold punches and says things that few of his peers are willing to voice.

Bob Walsh @CoachBobWalsh

Rhode Island College men’s basketball coach Bob Walsh is as social-media savvy (and smart) a coach as you’ll find. He routinely takes to Twitter or his blog to pose and answer the most pressing questions for college basketball coaches at all levels. Rarely do coaches as insightful as Walsh make their thinking so readily available for consumption.

And of course we don’t intend this list to be exhaustive, so if you think we missed one of your go-to follows, leave it in the comments.

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