NBA players routinely check their phones during halftime
The NBA has emerged in recent years as perhaps the most social-media-friendly sports league in North America. That trend apparently extends not just to the league's fans, but to its players.
Several NBAers told Andrew Keh of The New York Times that while using cellphones in the locker room during games used to be taboo, players nowadays routinely break them during halftime, whether to send text messages or check on their various social media accounts.
"I don’t think you should necessarily be coming in at halftime and start going through your mentions, but it's just become habitual," Charlotte Hornets center Spencer Hawes said. "What do you do when you've been away from your phone in any situation? You come in, check it, check if anyone texted you. I think halftime is kind of no different."
The NBA prohibits players posting to social media while games are going on, but, unlike MLB and the NFL, doesn't prevent them from using mobile devices in the locker room.
Even some of the old-schoolers who pushed back against the trend have come to accept it as the reality of the day.
"I'm still not a big fan of people checking their phones at halftime," said Hornets center Al Jefferson. "But times change. Cellphones are people's life now."
Chicago Bulls point guard Aaron Brooks said some teammates tried to institute a policy limiting phone use in the locker room, but it "didn't really last too long."
Sacramento Kings veteran swingman Caron Butler said that in the locker room after games, "You see everyone looking like zombies getting to their phones, trying to see what's going on and if they missed anything."
For the older generations of the NBA community, the specter of "millennials" has hovered over the game in recent years. It appears phones in locker rooms, and the pervasiveness of social media in general, is something those old hats may just have to accept.
As New York Knicks forward Kevin Seraphin explained: "I'm not perfect. I love social networks."