Jeremy Lin, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant were among the big winners Wednesday night in the first-ever NBA Social Media Awards.
The awards mark the first time a major pro sports league has had a standalone event to recognize engagement on social media. Players and teams were celebrated for success on platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Lin was given the league's Social Breakout Award primarily for dominating the web during an improbable string of incredible performances in February.
Taiwanese-American and Harvard educated — two descriptors essentially unheard of in the NBA — Lin was an undrafted free agent who had bounced around a couple of teams before injuries to teammates cleared a path for him to the New York Knicks' starting point guard position.
So unheralded was Lin that he was sleeping on teammate Landry Fields' couch when his story blew up. A photo Fields snapped of Lin's makeshift bed and posted to Twitter was recognized as this season's best social media photo share and has since been retweeted more than 2,700 times.
Bryant was awarded for receiving the most engagement on Facebook. He was also recognized for gaining the most mentions on Twitter — which is interesting because he is one of the league's few superstars to not yet have a Twitter account.
Durant, whose Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Miami Heat Thursday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, was given the FTW Award for his buzzer beater against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs becoming the season's most viral game winning shot.
To check out the full list of NBA Social Media Awards winners, head over to NBA.com.
The NBA being the first major sports league to hold an awards presentation exclusively for social media use is fitting given that it has been a social sports trendsetter for some time.
Last month, the NBA became the first sports league in the world to reach 5 million Twitter followers. Fans used Twitter to vote for this year's Slam Dunk Contest winner, and in March the league began selling t-shirts featuring star players' Twitter handles.
In April, the NBA marked the beginning of playoff season by official launching Pinterest and Tumblr pages.
More than 350 current and former NBA players are on Twitter. Counting official league, team and player profiles, the league claims more than 277 million combined Facebook likes and Twitter follows.
Would you like to see other sports leagues dole out awards for social media success? Let us know in the comments.
BONUS GALLERY: Who to Follow on Twitter During the NBA Finals
Windhorst has covered LeBron James since the Chosen One was a high school prodigy in Ohio. Now he covers James and the Heat for ESPN.com, and consistently provides scoops, insights and interesting stats.
As The Oklahoman's Thunder beat writer, Mayberry has covered every game since the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Follow him for updates from the Thunder locker room as Kevin Durant and company try to cut the Heat in the championship line.
Beck does an outstanding job covering the NBA for the New York Times. Follow him especially for his stellar, quick-turnaround game recap stories.
On Twitter, Thunder super sub James Harden is great about providing behind-the-scenes tidbits and interacting with fans -- including, here, none other than Lil Wayne.
The official NBA Twitter feed offers plenty of exclusive photo and video content, especially in the hours before games tip off. Retweets of writers from around the web also make it a handy follow to find other fresh sources of news and analysis.
The blog Hardwood Paroxysm brings deep analysis, funny opinions and insightful commentary. Follow founder Matt Moore's Twitter feed to keep up with the latest.
ESPN's TrueHoop blog is a gold mine for original content and links to the best basketball content from around the web. If you follow just one Twitter account during the finals, this might be the one to choose.
This parody account of Hall of Famer and immensely quotable ("Throw it down, big man!") broadcaster Bill Walton won't break any news during the finals, but it's sure to provide plenty of laughs.
A veteran basketball writer for Slam, GQ and other publications, Whitaker's Twitter commentary is always on-point. And he loves the game as much as anyone (see sample tweet, left).
Over the next couple weeks, SI.com writer Amick will keep you in the loop not just about the finals, but about the upcoming NBA draft and other happenings from around the league.
Yahoo! Sports NBA writer, Wojnarowski, is an especially great follow for his quick-turnaround postgame columns that regularly feature quotes and other tidbits you won't find elsewhere.
Windhorst has covered LeBron James since the Chosen One was a high school prodigy in Ohio. Now he covers James and the Heat for ESPN.com, and consistently provides scoops, insights and interesting stats.
As The Oklahoman's Thunder beat writer, Mayberry has covered every game since the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008. Follow him for updates from the Thunder locker room as Kevin Durant and company try to cut the Heat in the championship line.
Beck does an outstanding job covering the NBA for the New York Times. Follow him especially for his stellar, quick-turnaround game recap stories.
On Twitter, Thunder super sub James Harden is great about providing behind-the-scenes tidbits and interacting with fans -- including, here, none other than Lil Wayne.
The official NBA Twitter feed offers plenty of exclusive photo and video content, especially in the hours before games tip off. Retweets of writers from around the web also make it a handy follow to find other fresh sources of news and analysis.
The blog Hardwood Paroxysm brings deep analysis, funny opinions and insightful commentary. Follow founder Matt Moore's Twitter feed to keep up with the latest.
ESPN's TrueHoop blog is a gold mine for original content and links to the best basketball content from around the web. If you follow just one Twitter account during the finals, this might be the one to choose.
This parody account of Hall of Famer and immensely quotable ("Throw it down, big man!") broadcaster Bill Walton won't break any news during the finals, but it's sure to provide plenty of laughs.
A veteran basketball writer for Slam, GQ and other publications, Whitaker's Twitter commentary is always on-point. And he loves the game as much as anyone (see sample tweet, left).
Over the next couple weeks, SI.com writer Amick will keep you in the loop not just about the finals, but about the upcoming NBA draft and other happenings from around the league.
Yahoo! Sports NBA writer, Wojnarowski, is an especially great follow for his quick-turnaround postgame columns that regularly feature quotes and other tidbits you won't find elsewhere.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Link-creative ?
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