NBA commissioner David Stern has announced that that the league will soon issue guidelines for Twitter usage.

"Obviously, there is a happy medium between tweeting before the game and tweeting from our bench during the game," Stern said.

"You want to make sure that pop culture doesn't intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game."

The NFL released guidelines on Monday, restricting players, coaches and operations personnel from using Twitter and Facebook from 90 minutes before kickoff to the end of traditional media interviews after games.

"We just need to make sure when it's okay to Tweet and when it's not okay to Tweet so it at least focuses around the game," Stern added.

"It would look unusual for a guy sitting on the bench to pick up his cell phone, and I think we can agree that he probably shouldn't be writing e-mails. It's not about Twitter; it's about the line of communication. That's what we're focusing on."

"We're happy to let it play out to see if it merits all the attention that it's getting. We don't want to overreact."