FanHouse is coming to you live from Phoenix, covering the 2009 NBA All-Star weekend. PHOENIX -- Chris Bosh is one of the most technologically advanced players in the NBA. Besides seeing his work posted here on FanHouse, he's providing fans with an even deeper level of access by connecting with them in a variety of ways. You can reach him on Facebook, MySpace, and even Twitter.
I caught up with Bosh at the players' hotel, where we talked about his interest in technology, how he uses his iPhone and Blackberry devices, and the fans' fascination with the small stuff. Our conversation, after the jump.
Brett Pollakoff: I was going to ask you if you're an iPhone or a Blackberry guy, but then I heard you're both.
Chris Bosh: [With Blackberry in hand] Both. I got the iPhone in my pocket, well, at the room -- it's on the charger.
BP: What do you use it for?
CB: Really just mainly calling, that's like my fun phone, you know? Because of all the apps and maps and all the different stuff. This one is more texting and emailing, more business-like.
BP: Which one do you use for Twitter?
CB: This one, I use TwitterBerry.
BP: Do you have a Twitter app for the iPhone?
CB: They have Twitterriffic ...
BP: That's the one I got.
CB: Yeah, I had it, then I had another one but I didn't use it as much for that. TwitterBerry is a little easier.
BP: So you're more on the BlackBerry than the iPhone then?
CB: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Between Blackberry Messenger and texting and email, this is it.
BP: What other apps do you have on the iPhone?
CB: Facebook, um, FStream, I use a lot of that one ...
BP: Now you're not on it all the time, so you probably haven't hacked it to get the video camera on the iPhone yet?
CB: Oh yeah, of course!
BP: You got it on there? OK, good. That's a street cred thing with the Apple people, they want to know, so if you've jailbroken your iPhone, then you're cool.
CB: (Laughs) Yeah, I have that. And then, uh, Wordpress, that's a good one.
BP: Oh yeah, for blogging?
CB: Yeah, I'm making a blogging site real soon so I got that one.
BP: I heard you've got BlaneHarrington.com, that's the one you're going to set up?
CB: Yeah, it takes a lot of work, man. But we had already pretty much branded Blane Harrington, and he was kinda already a reporter, right? ... I look at other blogging sites like Kanye West, Hypebeast is one, 50 Cent's This Is 50 is one -- I'm talking about the layout, not necessarily the content. I want to go for that same kind of feel.
BP: A lot of times you can tell if guys are blogging themselves, because you'll see a lot of spelling errors, or there's slang in there ...
CB: (Laughs)
BP: You know what I mean? As opposed to just talking on the phone to somebody who will post it.
CB: Yeah, see, I try to keep away from that. I try to keep away from the slang and the misspelled words and all that.
BP: No, your stuff is clean.
CB: Yeah, because of my mother, I'm very cut and paste. If it's going up, it has to be the right way. It's gonna be me, it's gonna be pretty genuine, and that means it's not gonna be an overwhelming amount of content.
BP: Like Gilbert Arenas maybe, who does, like ...
CB: Yeah. If I do something like, real short and sweet, pictures of crazy things I might see, places I go, I think that hopefully people will enjoy it. Just stuff I like to do.
BP: What type of music might be on your iPod that would surprise people? You got anything on there that people would go, "what?" Because I remember some of the guys had some Barry Manilow on there earlier in the season. You got anything like that on there?
CB: What would surprise people? I have some Modest Mouse, or maybe the Daft Punk stuff ... a Kanye mix tape with all the originals ... I just lost my iPod too!
BP: You got it all backed up though?
CB: Oh, of course.
BP: So, you're doing the Tech Summit [Friday]? What's your section, what panel are you going to be on?
CB: Global Wireless Evolution.
BP: Okay, did they prep you on that, on what to expect? Or are you just showing up ...
CB: I just show up, man. I'm such a fan of technology, I mean, I could talk about that stuff off the head right now. But hey, I've been doing my research, and it's very interesting to be there because we talk about how sports and technology can be used together. ... I think the panel's very good, and it's going to be a very good discussion.
BP: I think fans eat that stuff up too, you know? Because if you're really the one doing the blogging and then get yourself out there on things like Twitter, it really gives the fans that insight into your personality.
CB: That's the reason I have Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. It's just for the fans to follow, and kind of see what it is. You know I was a fan not too long ago, I still am, and I think just to see what the person you're interested in is doing, just like silly stuff. I don't know why that is, but ...
BP: It's just fascinating ...
CB: Yeah, it's fascinating. Like, "wow, he eats burgers too?" It's crazy.
BP: What other NBA guys are on Twitter that you know of? I know Shaq is ...
CB: I know Shaq is, I don't know anybody else.
BP: Yeah, me neither, I just recently started to get into it. You know David Stern was Twittering this morning?
CB: I saw that the NBA just announced they had a Twitter, that's pretty cool. Especially with the NBA, it's a good source for news. Because I follow FOX Sports and it's always something that just happened, like, "Sharapova is injured," or something like that.
BP: You're up to the minute.
CB: Yeah, I'm up to the minute. Real time, you know?
BP: Yep.
