Elon Musk finally followed through and removed legacy blue checkmarks, leaving verification only to Twitter users who pay for it. Which NBA teams and players have ponied up?
After talking it up for weeks and an initial deadline of Apr. 1 that came and went, Elon Musk and Twitter have finally removed all legacy blue checkmarks leaving account verification in place only for users who have paid for a Twitter Blue subscription.
Sort of.
LeBron James had initially said that he would not pay for verification for his account but after the legacy checkmarks disappeared followers noticed this his stayed and it appeared he was a Twitter Blue subscriber. Later in the evening, Musk admitted that he had comped subscriptions for a few users, including LeBron James. It’s not clear if this is a troll job by Musk or an attempt to keep two power users and their enormous followings on the site and active, but they still have their checkmarks for now.
Below you’ll find a list of NBA teams and players who appear to have paid for Twitter Blue subscriptions, an organizational subscription that comes with a gold checkmark and those that have passed and chosen to go unverified. As always, take this with a grain of salt as, like in the case of LeBron, it’s not always clear that a subscription reflects an active choice on the part of the account holder and that Twitter’s own labels and policies seem to be changing minute to minute.
NBA teams with Twitter Blue subscriptions:
- Dallas Mavericks
- Denver Nuggets
- Detroit Pistons
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Philadelphia 76ers
- Portland Trail Blazers
NBA teams with Twitter gold checkmark organization subscriptions:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Boston Celtics
- Chicago Bulls
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Miami Heat
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- New York Knicks
- Orlando Magic
- Phoenix Suns
- Toronto Raptors
- Utah Jazz
- Washington Wizards
NBA teams with no Twitter subscriptions:
- Brooklyn Nets
- Charlotte Hornets
- Golden State Warriors
- Houston Rockets
- Indiana Pacers
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Sacramento Kings
- San Antonio Spurs
Current and former NBA players with Twitter Blue subscriptions:
- Brandon Clarke
- Carmelo Anthony
- Enes Freedom
- Frank Kaminsky
- Klay Thompson
- Karl-Anthony Towns
- Kristaps Porzingis
- LeBron James*
- RJ Hampton
[Ed. Note — Updated Apr. 21]
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