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"The National Basketball Association became the first major sports league in the world to top 5 million Twitter followers on Monday morning. \nAnd no other league is even close. \nThe next most popular sports organization, the NFL, clocks in around 3.3 million followers. Major League Baseball has just over 2 million, while the National Hockey League and World Wrestling Entertainment have about 1.1 million each. World soccer's governing body, FIFA, has almost 800,000 followers. \n\u201CWe are committed to delivering great content to our fans 24/7,\" Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, the NBA\u2019s vice president of marketing, told Mashable earlier this year. \"More and more we\u2019re using social media as the lens for that, so to speak.\u201D \nThe NBA has long been at the forefront of using social media in the sports business world. Fans used Twitter to vote for this year's Slam Dunk Contest winner, and in March the league began selling t-shirts featuring star players' Twitter handles. Last month, it marked the beginning of playoff season by official launching Pinterest and Tumblr pages.  \nMore than 350 current and former NBA players are on Twitter. Counting official league, team and player profiles, the league claims more than 260 million combined Facebook likes and Twitter follows. \nSEE ALSO: Fear the Unibrow! NCAA Star\u2019s Epic Eye Hair Dominates Internet [PICS]\n\nWhile the NBA dominates as a league, soccer stars dominate Twitter's sports section when it comes to individual accounts. Brazilian midfielder Kaka is the world's most followed athlete, with more than 10 million followers. \nHis Real Madrid teammate Cristiano Ronaldo is also approaching the 10 million mark. LeBron James is the NBA's most popular active player, with nearly 4.5 million followers, while the retired Shaquille O'Neal counts more than 5.5 million. \nThe NBA's Twitter success and popularity of global soccer stars are just a couple reflections of the social network's natural synergy with sports. Sports moments dominate Twitter's list of most-tweets-per-second records, and the company is looking to hire a sports fan in an editorial role now. Twitter's bird logo is even named after an NBA legend.\nBut athletics still have a long way to go to challenge pop music for Twitter dominance \u2014 Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry are the network's three most popular users, with more than 65 million combined followers.\nWhy do you think Twitter and sports seem to go so well together? Let us know in the comments.\nBONUS: 15 Hilarious Sports Parody Twitter Accounts\n\n\n15 Hilarious Sports Parody Twitter Accounts\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. @NotBillWalton\n\nNBA legend and hardcore Grateful Dead fan, Bill Walton is known for his sometimes curious verbiage and his philosophical take on the game of basketball. This account takes full advantage.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. @TheFakeESPN\n\nThis account serves as a bizarro version of the Worldwide Leader in Sports, and has some 175,000 followers as a testament to its humor.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. @RogerGoodell\n\nNFL commissioner Roger Goodell is a pretty serious fellow, but what if he told us how he really feels?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. @_Happy_Gilmore\n\nWait, that Adam Sandler movie was fiction, right?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. @fakegrantland\n\nThe smart and oh-so-hip website Grantland provides loads of great sports writing, but can sometimes take itself a wee bit seriously. This account pokes fun with fake stories and headlines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. @CoachQsMustache\n\nJoel Quenneville, coach of the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, sports a formidable bristly 'stache. Follow its trials and tribulations here.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. @PeytonsHead\n\nThis account pays homage to quarterback Peyton Manning's nugget, and provides commentary on happenings around the sports world.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. @Fake_Prokhorov\n\nNew Jersey Nets owner and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov could give that Dos Equis guy a run for his money as the Most Interesting Man in the World. So he's a natural for a fake Twitter account.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. @FauxJohnMadden\n\nLegendary NFL coach and analyst John Madden -- straight, no chaser and with a twist of the ridiculous.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. @FakeCoachPop\n\nSan Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is known to be a cool, but fairly reserved dude. He'd probably be great on Twitter, but for now, this fake account will have to do.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. @PretendLouHoltz\n\nFormer Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz can be pretty tough to understand as a sportscaster, due to his excitable nature and less-than-stellar enunciation. This account hasn't tweeted in couple months, but will hopefully get going again when football season comes around.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. @EmoChrisBosh\n\nFair or not, Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh is frequently maligned for timid play and a lack of mental toughness. This account plays off his perceived \"emo\" nature.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13. @RexRyan\n\nVerbose New York Jets coach Rex Ryan is not (yet) on Twitter. Until he joins, this will have to do.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14. @OldHossRadbourn\n\nCharles \"Old Hoss\" Radbourn was a baseball pitcher in the 1800s. What if his ghost had a Twitter account?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n15. @FakeFredWilpon\n\nNew York Mets owner Fred Wilpon is a high-profile figure, in part for being a victim of Bernard Madoff's financial scam. Keep up with him in (fake) real-time here.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThumbnail photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Link-creative \u202C"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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