NBA All-Star Weekend Social Media Awards

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The NBA has become the social media league.

Every player has a Twitter account, and it seems like you can't go a day without hearing about what this player tweeted or what picture that player posted to his Instagram account.

After last summer's social media Olympics, in which we followed what players were doing on a day-to-day basis while bringing the pain on other countries in London, we had our first annual social media All-Star Game.

Tweets poured in from every direction, and videos and pictures took mere seconds to go from one end of the Earth to the other.

So it only makes sense to break down what happened this weekend and give a few awards to the players and people who made the All-Star break all the more fun with their social activity.

Instagram Account of the Weekend: LeBron James

Via web.stagram.com

Few players have really mastered what it means to have an Instagram account to the point that LeBron James has.

While his Twitter account is a lot of stereotypical athlete talk, his Instagram account is at times a step-by-step account of what he did for a short period of time.

With Kevin Love, the King of Olympics Instagram, not in the game this year, LeBron took the torch and showed us what went down this weekend.

The best picture was the shot of him hanging out with Michael Jordan at some point before the start of the All-Star Game on Sunday, but there was a lot more than that.

Whatever went down after All-Star Saturday night, LeBron ended up posting pictures of himself with Jay-Z, Adrian Peterson, Tristan Thompson and all of his crew hanging out together.

It was a real who's who of "look who I met."

Purposefully Annoying Tweeter of the Weekend: Skip Bayless

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Like most sane people in this world, I absolutely hate Skip Bayless and what he stands for in today's sports media.

However, the way he's able to get people riled up is downright hilarious, and he was on full display over the course of the weekend.

Bayless started things out by creating another reason to dislike LeBron James:

Any way makes a surprise appearance in the Dunk Contest? #GetLeBronToDunk
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) February 17, 2013

And he continued the weekend by ragging on the Slam Dunk Contest because LeBron wasn't in it:

Ne-Yo's opening act was better than the entire Dunk Contest. #GetLeBronToDunk
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) February 18, 2013

Finally, he was upset that there was no defense being played in the first half of the All-Star Game, saying it's worse than the NFL's Pro Bowl:

I can't remember seeing less first-half defense in an All-Star Game. Way worse than NFL's Pro Bowl. But OK if NBA stars redeem selves in 4th
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) February 18, 2013

Nothing's worse than the Pro Bowl, Skip. Nothing.

Video of the Weekend

If you're not acquainted with The Basketball Jones, then you're missing out on quite a bit of basketball fun. There are no bloggers in the world who have as much fun with the All-Star weekend as the TBJ guys.

This year, they were on top of their game as usual.

The best of the bunch, excluding their daily recap podcasts, was the gang asking the NBA All-Stars what they thought they could beat 50-year-old Michael Jordan at.

There are three things I take away from this video: I really want to play chess against Carmelo Anthony; why are there no videos on the Internet of Ryan Anderson catching grapes?; I'm going to go create a Yahoo! account so I have the off chance to play cribbage against Matt Bonner.

Picture of the Weekend

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If you're not ready for a cuteness overload, then look away, click on or just go get your heart checked out by a doctor, because this is the cutest damn thing ever.

During Saturday night's festivities, kids were running all over the place, and one of the little rascals ended up finding his way over to Jeremy Lin.

Who was the kid? Well, it was Kiyan Anthony, Carmelo's baby boy.

Kiyan has evidently taken a liking to Lin, and when he saw him in Houston, he absolutely assaulted Lin's head.

The little guy hung out with Lin for a bit while reporters snapped pictures before Lin had to go on and compete in the Skills Competition.

Front Office Tweeter of the Weekend: Daryl Morey

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This one should have been a no-brainer coming into the weekend. There's no general manager in all of basketball who uses Twitter like Daryl Morey.

Morey got started Friday night, giving props to Chandler Parsons throughout the Rising Stars Challenge. But he really got going Saturday night:

The West team is clearly better overall in the three point contest but former Rocket Steve Novak has a great chance to win
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 17, 2013

Worse pick for @billsimmons this year: James White in dunk contest or the Houston Rockets win total under?
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 17, 2013

He got back to it Sunday before the game started, professing his love for a certain female singer:

I am man enough to admit it, I love Ke$ha RT @jonathan_s_katz you rockin out to Ke$ha or what?!?! #SSAC13
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 18, 2013

With no defense, Z-Bo has missed a left hook from 3 feet, Tony Parker has missed a runner, &Aldridge missed a mid-range shot #justasexpected
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) February 18, 2013

@dmorey this isn't even as high scoring as a rockets-warriors game
— Mark Singer (@msinger92) February 18, 2013

I remember seeing that last tweet and scoffing, but then I realized there was a possibility the winning team might not outscore what the Rockets did in their 140-109 win over the Golden State Warriors a few weeks back.

Tweet of the Weekend: Kobe Bryant

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Kobe Bryant had a big night on Saturday as far as Twitter goes, as it seems he was glued to his phone for the duration of the evening.

The best part of the night was when he took a picture of his daughter playing with Chris Paul's son after the night ended:

At least lil @cp3 and baby Mamba can play together NBA can't veto this one Ha! twitter.com/kobebryant/sta…
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 17, 2013

Let's see, we have a photo of Chris Paul's son (who everybody always seems to get a kick out of), Kobe's daughter (who people like to see just as much) and a thinly veiled shot at David Stern.

Yep, there's everything packed into those 140 characters to give me a bit of a laugh.

NBA Tweeter of the Weekend: Tony Allen

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Tony Allen is one of the league's most active players on Twitter.

Whether he's just narrating his day in an oddly comical way or blasting out strange observations here and there, Allen's always good for a few good tweets a day.

Allen didn't have a ton to say on Saturday night, but once he realized the All-Star Game was starting, he got on a roll.

He started off criticizing the NBA's choice of performer for the game introductions, just as everybody else on the planet was:

I wonder which 1 of these players Listen 2 NEYO before a Game , LOL
— Tony Allen (@aa000G9) February 18, 2013

Keep it real, if I filled my play list with all Neyo! I'm prepared 2 Foul out the 1st quarter//
— Tony Allen (@aa000G9) February 18, 2013

Allen was rooting on his teammate, hoping Zach Randolph would show off a bit of his range. Unfortunately, Randolph never unleashed from beyond the arc: