Weekly Reaction

Hello again, 

This week the Chicago Bulls began the second half of the NBA season with a big win versus their conference foe the Toronto Raptors. In my previous reaction, I pointed out three separate instances where I noticed an effective use of pathos on all the Bulls related Twitter campaigns that we’ve been keeping up with. This week I aimed to distinguish logos, pathos and ethos among all the Twitter accounts. Let’s start with @ChicagoBulls.

This week I chose to select a tweet from NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo that was retweeted by the Bulls’ Twitter.

Dikembe Mutombo ‏‪@officialmutombo Feb 14 
Me and the next best



 defender in NBA 


Most NBA fans know Dikembe Mutombo as one of the best defenders in league history. Last week, the Bulls lone all-star, Joakim Noah traveled to New Orleans for the annual festivities. Some of the events take place on the court, but the NBA community also gets together off it to take part in charitable activities. Mutombo (now retired) was present at an All-Star function where Joakim Noah was also at and Mutombo didn’t shy away from giving his praise to the young Bulls’ center. In his tweet, Mutombo refers to Noah as “the next best defender in the NBA,” implicating himself as the best. Some might agree with him and others might disagree, but Mutombo’s defensive prowess is to be respected. The Chicago Bulls seem to admire him too. Right before the All Star game, the Bulls retweeted Mutombo’s photo in a show of ethos. It’s evident that Dikembe Mutombo approves of one of the Bulls’ players, and the team didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that. It’s a display of legitimacy- one great player giving another his stamp of approval. Yet through this tweet, the Bulls want us followers to give show our appreciation towards the team and Noah, and I think it was an effective method. The tweet was retweeted 1,500 times; significantly more than other tweets found on the Bulls’ page.

The next tweet I’d like to discuss does a nice job in expressing another rhetorical appeal: pathos.

Jason Patt ‏‪@Bulls_Jay Feb 20

As so eloquently put by a BaB user, now we wait for Reggie Rose's State of the Bulls address. ‪http://www.blogabull.com/2014/2/20/5429656/chicago-bulls-trade-deadline-open-thread#216435659 …

This tweet by @Bulls_Jay provides the link to the blog that Jason Patt writes for, BlogABull. The emotional appeal ascending from this tweet is a comical one. Reggie Rose is the older brother of injured Bull, Derrick Rose. He is the head of Derrick Rose’s camp and other than that he has no real link with the team. Last year he caused a bit of a stir by publically speaking out against the organization and owner Jerry Reinsdorf for not surrounding his brother with better players. Since Derrick Rose is the core of the team, any discontent coming from his camp is definitely a concern. The Bulls stayed put at the trade deadline last week and Jason Patt’s colleagues wrote about it on the blog. As a measure to get his followers’ to check out the piece, Jason Patt took the funny comment about a fictional “State of the Bulls Address” to Twitter and I for one ended up checking out their article to get a laugh. By making light of Reggie Rose’s previous criticisms, Jason Patt effectively drew me over to the blog to read the linked article and the usually interesting and funny fan reactions.

@NickFriedell provided his usually bits and pieces this week, but there was one particular tweet regarding a phenomenal performance by Joakim Noah that I though had a really strong appeal to pathos.

Nick Friedell ‏‪@NickFriedell Feb 20

Best stretch of Jo's career continues. MT ‪@JeffGurt: Joakim Noah is first center with 13 assists in a game since Vlade Divac in April 1996.

In the game against the Raptors, the Bulls center had 13 assists, an unusually high figure for a player of his position. As a matter of fact, Noah was the first player of his respective position to have that high of an assist total since 1996, nearly 20 years. A lot goes on in 20 years of NBA basketball and the fact that Noah was able to achieve such a feat is remarkable. The stat that Friedell tweets is powerful enough for anyone to respect Noah and his performance. Not only does Friedell compare Noah to Divac, a former great, he provides statistics regarding the date of the last time Noah’s performance was matched, which makes it all the more sweeter. It’s hard to ignore the fact that Joakim Noah did something no one had done since 1996 and that is the goal of Friedell’s tweet. It’s a truly great use of logos. 

At this point of my analysis, all three of the Twitter campaigns have all steadily been posting tweets that have all been intriguing, each having strong rhetorical appeals unique to each other. Initially, I did think the Chicago Bulls Twitter account was the weakest, because they were posting a lot of tweets that lacked any rhetorical appeal or substance, but they have picked it up the last two weeks. What I really enjoy is seeing a wide spectrum of tweets, even though they are all related to the same topic. It is interesting to see how these different parties react to the team and its’ activities. Where as one week @Bulls_Jay’s tweets stand out, the next week @NickFriedell might be giving us something special. It varies and there really is no individual best Tweeter thus far. I am interested to see what happens as the season progresses.

Until next week,

Matt.