Trash Talk by Twitter?

Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers is terming the whole incident "silly" that involved Detroit Pistons' Charlie Villanueva tweeting that Kevin Garnett made negative comments about him being a cancer patient. This is yet another instance of the real-time non-stop digital world of captured incidents and constant reporting of location and status and the real world -- or, in this case, the real world of professional basketball.

The incident flared after the Celtics victory over Detroit on Tuesday that prompted Garnett to issue the following statement, as reported by the Boston Globe:

“I am aware there was a major miscommunication regarding something I said on the court last night. My comment to Charlie Villanueva was in fact ‘You are cancerous to your team and our league.’ I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball.”

Rivers' comments about the whole Twitter incident were interesting, as he seemed frustrated that what used to be trash talking on the court is now being publicly broadcast.

"I don't like the whole tweeting thing," said Rivers. "I'll state that as well. Guys talk on the court. It doesn't mean they should or shouldn't. The fact that we're talking about this, to me, is just silly. This isn't something we should be talking about. We had a hell of a game yesterday, let's talk about basketball. It's amazing to me that this stuff is news now. This is not sports."

Like most of us in the real world, Rivers is faced with the dilemma of not squelching the personal communication preferences of his team members.  A number of his players are regular twitter users, including his most high profile new Celtic, @the_real_shaq.  

"We tell them it's your life, have fun with it and all that," said Rivers. "But what goes on on the team stays on the team. This is a new generation, and we're going to continue to have problems with this until we figure it out."

In other words, more dribbling and shooting, less tweeting, please.