‘Less hate here on Threads’: Giannis, Tom Brady among athletes embracing Twitter rival
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a big fan.
The Milwaukee Bucks superstar was among the tens of millions of people who have already signed up for the new social media platform Threads, which launched late Wednesday as a potential rival to Twitter.
As far as the Greek Freak is concerned, there is already a clear winner.
Facebook parent Meta launched a new app that appears to mimic Twitter, marking a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk.
“Threads>twitter,” Antetokounmpo posted early Thursday morning on the new app from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.
That thread (which is what posts on Threads are called) was one of 11 that Antetokounmpo posted during his first 16 hours on the app. The subject matter of four of those threads was how much the two-time most valuable player prefers Threads over its Elon Musk-owned competition.
“Thread got me feeling good!” he wrote on one.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerburg posted Thursday morning that 30 million people had signed up for Threads.
My wife and my bosses keep telling me to not waste so much time tweeting — over 1,000 times in April alone. Waste of time, my behind. I’ve gained friends and followers and writing gigs — arguably, this job! — from my torrent of tweets.
Antetokounmpo certainly isn’t the only sports star among them. Tom Brady posted Wednesday that he was “Just trying to be early to the party for once.”
On Thursday, the seven-time Super Bowl champion riffed on Threads’ stated mission of “creating a positive and creative space.”
He then replied to his own post, “Apparently not,” along with a gif of himself looking unhappy on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sideline.
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry used the new platform to post a video of himself on the golf course. “Figured I would show y’all how my days been going lately,” he wrote. “Prime golf season but we still getting that 🏀 in don’t worry!”
Musk could be violating Federal Trade Commission rules around deceptive practices and false advertising by misrepresenting which users have paid for Twitter Blue.
Here are more sports figures’ threads from the platform’s first 24 hours:
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
