NBA to crack down on disparaging tweets from official team accounts

The NBA doesn't want its teams starting any more flame wars on social media.

A couple weeks after the Portland Trail Blazers' official account stirred up an objectively fantastic back-and-forth by needling Memphis Grizzlies forward Chandler Parsons on Twitter, the NBA sent a memo to all 30 teams, warning against "mocking and/or ridiculing" opponents or referees on social media, ESPN's Tim MacMahon reports.

The memo, from NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, said recent posts from official team accounts had "crossed the line between appropriate and inappropriate" and that "such conduct can result in 'Twitter wars' between players that can cause further reputational damage and subject players to discipline by the League," according to MacMahon.

The league's memo also reportedly cited criticism and/or mimicry of NBA officials on team social media platforms as inappropriate.

The Blazers-Parsons incident was mostly in good fun, but other past incidents have been uglier. In April of 2015, a Houston Rockets employee (whom they later fired) sent a tweet with a gun emoji next to a horse emoji when the Rockets were on the verge of eliminating the Dallas Mavericks from the playoffs.