Social media can affect college, pro scouting as some teams check through middle school

I was scrolling through twitter mindlessly the other day when this gem popped up on my tl:

“Unclear why we’re all still using this site when the worst case scenario for a tweet is it ruins your entire life and the best case scenario is it ends up on a Mashable list of sassiest replies to the IHOP account”

Obviously, there are better best-case scenarios (helping communities and causes, gaining fame, learning every NBA draft pick minutes before they happen thanks to Woj and Shams), but the Twitter user Jess Dweck has a point.

And it’s a point young athletes need to remember: Be careful with what you post.

The Lexington Herald Leader published an article Sunday revolving around player evaluation in the NBA draft, and an important aspect was twitter.

Bobby Marks, a former Nets assistant general manager and current ESPN’s front office insider, said all NBA teams check social media.

“It’s an extension of the background check,” Marks said. “I think you can learn a lot about players (through) their social media posts.”

That’s certainly true in college recruiting as well. Like scrolling through the twitter or Instagram of someone you’ve never met or don’t know well, it’s easy for a coach to do the same to get a first impression — for better or worse.

Sally Mobley, University of South Carolina manager of athletics social media, told the Lexington Herald Leader her staff checks players’ social media accounts back to middle school.

Kentucky director of strategic communications Guy Ramsey told the outlet the schools checks to the very beginnings of the account.

That isn’t to say stay off social media altogether by any means. Now more than ever, young athletes have garnered recruiting attention and fans by posting highlights. It can be a key piece to creating a brand.

And social media is still a fun way to do what it was originally meant to: connect with people.

But it’s important to be cautious with these sites. Maybe a good rule of thumb would be that old adage about only saying what you’d be comfortable with your grandparents seeing.

It’s also important to learn to navigate without social media. Marks warned against relying on it for motivation.

“That’s a question teams ask: How much do you rely on social media?” Marks said. “And the response is overwhelmingly, ‘a lot.'”