Best/Worst Sports Team Tweets

In case you haven't realized it yet, tweeting has been pretty popular in the sports world for some time now. 

From athletes calling one another out, to fans taking shots at their favorite players and, finally, teams posting things that help fans keep up with all of the action, Twitter has become one of the first things sports lovers turn to before, during and after a game.

Naturally, with teams taking to the Interwebs to post content, some of it has been good and, well, some hasn't been as good. To prove this, I'm diving into the best and worst sports team tweets ever, with a few reminders that people need to think before hitting the "send" button.

Best: Atlanta Hawks

Unless you've been living under a rock—or just have no cred to sit at the cool kids' table—there's a good chance you know what the dating app Tinder is.

A cult phenomenon for the past couple of years, the "Hot or Not-like" site takes pics of users and leaves them with the dubious task of swiping left or right, hoping for a match.

Knowing just how important, and distracting, the 'der is for its fans, the Atlanta Hawks geniusly organized a Tinder Night earlier this season, allowing fans in the arena to swipe their little hearts out, hoping to find the love of their lives—or for the night—during the game.

With a "Swipe Right Suite" for the matches made in Internet history, along with security guards wearing customized "Swipe Left Patrol" tees, this was one of the strangest—yet, oddly successful—marketing ploys in sports team history.

Without Twitter, who knows if it's as great as it ended up becoming?

Best: Tampa Bay Lightning

With the Tampa Bay Lightning making a deep run in this year's NHL postseason, the team is looking for its second Stanley Cup title, with the first one in franchise history coming during the 2003-04 season.

Even with over a decade to stew over the fact that the Lightning won  it all that season, one Twitter user thought he would be a little snarky, going after the team's account by saying the team, "has never won a cup, in his eyes."

That didn't go over too well with the Lightning, as their response was perfectly executed, tweeting out a photo of an eye-exam chart that spelled out, "2004 Stanley Cup Champions."

It's sassy and clever all wrapped up into a tweet—and it couldn't have been any better.

Worst: Houston Astros

After a 2014 season that ended with a 70-92 record, the Houston Astros entered the 2015 campaign with many pundits believing that they would be hovering around last place in their division for the majority of the year.

Still, with baseball being a wild game, where anything can happen, the team sent out a tweet in December 2014, which notified fans that a Taylor Swift concert in the team's home ballpark would be rescheduled should it conflict with an Astros home playoff game.

The Twitterverse just adored that, with reactions from fans piling on the sarcasm.

However, the team might just get the last laugh, as they've been a surprise thus far and are currently atop the AL West, meaning Tay Tay might just need to watch out later this year.

Best: Portland Trail Blazers

When it comes to Twitter, the key to an amazing tweet is wittiness.

So when EA Sports NBA Live sent something out asking fans to choose the player they wanted to shoot the final shot in a game when their team was down two and three seconds was on the clock, the Portland Trail Blazers played the response beautifully.

After the Blazers were in a first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets in 2014, Rip City's Damian Lillard hit a game-winning, series-clinching trey that had the Rockets saying, "Houston, we have a problem."

Following the bold shot that Lillard hit months earlier, the Blazers Twitter account had a simple answer to the aforementioned question, saying, "Ask Houston."

Torched.

Best: Arizona Cardinals

As someone who lives in Seattle, I can tell you how nearly unbeatable the Seahawks have been anytime they've played in CenturyLink Field the past three seasons.

With a home record of 22-2 in the three years that quarterback Russell Wilson has been at the helm, the only thing more uncommon to see in Seattle than a Hawks home loss is sunshine—I kid, I kid.

Still, when the team does lose, the opposition wants to boast its accomplishments anyway they can.

That's exactly what the Arizona Cardinals did back in Week 16 of the 2013 NFL season, when they defeated Seattle, posting a tweet that simply read, "No," in reply to the NFL Network's earlier post asking if Seattle was unbeatable at home.

It was a subtle little thing—and the Seahawks ended up winning the Super Bowl that year—but, for one day, the team and its Twitter feed got the best of the NFL.

Worst: Baltimore Ravens

There's a very good chance that most of us recall the play that the New England Patriots used against the Baltimore Ravens in last season's AFC divisional playoff game.

You know the one, where Shane Vereen of the Pats lined up eligibly and outschemed the Ravens, leading to a touchdown for New England in its eventual victory.

Well, after the NFL owners voted to pass a rule that prohibited the deceptive play, the Ravens Twitter account let it be known that, two months later, they were still salty about the trick, tweeting out a whiny post that showed that Baltimore might have won had the rule been implemented earlier.

Riiiiight.

Best: Charlotte Hornets

When the greatest baller in NBA history takes over his team's Twitter account, fans should have expected greatness.

And, wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what happened when Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan started making words rain down in the 140-character box, giving fans an opportunity to see what it's like to be a billionaire athlete who happens to run a pro sports team now.

From showing off the Hornets' opening night tickets and tuxedo-like shirt to his tough decision between sitting in a suite or courtside, MJ saved his best tweet for his last one, when he completely burned PGA golfer Keegan Bradley, who wears a version of Air Jordan's when out on the golf course.

Worst: Houston Rockets

Credit: Screengrab

I don't know about you, but, personally, there's always that moment when I input something into the 140-character box, re-read it a couple of times and then decide if I should hit send or not.

Hell, even after putting it out there on the Internet, I still ponder my decision and, within seconds, I'll either keep it public or delete it.

Well, Chad Shanks, now former social-media manager of the Houston Rockets, should have probably gone through that process, too—especially as the social spokesperson for a professional sports team.

Following the Rockets' first-round playoff victory over the in-state rival Dallas Mavericks, Shanks tweeted a photo of two emojis—which was a gun pointed at a horse—and the words, "Shhhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon."

Yeah, sort of bad taste in so many ways that the team later deleted the tweet, issued an apology, fired the guy and reminded everyone that, yes, social media is taken more seriously than it was a decade ago.

Best: Los Angeles Kings

Hands-down, the greatest Twitter feed of any sports team, the Los Angeles Kings have gained a reputation for being the snarkiest and most quick-witted of any franchise on social media.

The brainchild of the operation came from Dewayne Hankins, who, prior to leaving his post with the Kings in 2013, was often called classless for some of the things that he sent out from the team's official Twitter page.

Sarcastic and outrageous in his replies, the Kings feed reinvented the way that teams could interact with fans and opposing teams, with some of the best insults ever before seen on social media coming from the Silver and Black.Of course, it didn't come without some controversy, but that's a small price to pay for being the kings of social media—pun unintentional.