Cleveland Cavaliers Shaquille O'Neal No. 1 athlete in Twitter following; "Shaq Vs." top-rated sports reality show

Tracy Boulian, The Plain Dealer Cleveland Cavaliers personable center Shaquille O'Neal leads all athletes, worldwide, in Twitter followers.

If Shaquille O'Neal can help the Cleveland Cavaliers experience the same success he's enjoyed with a couple off-court ventures, expect a ticker tape parade down E. 9th St. next June.

The Big Aristotle leads all athletes, worldwide, in Twitter followers, with nearly 2.3 million of them, according to trackingtwitter.com. O'Neal is seventh overall in the "celebrity" category.

USA Today also reports on the Shaq tweeting phenomenon. Writes Chris Colston:

By himself, new Cleveland Cavaliers center Shaquille O'Neal has more than 2.27 million Twitter followers, seventh among all "celebrities" at trackingtwitter.com.

"As recently as last year, (social networks) weren't even a major topic of discussion," says Mike Bantom, NBA senior vice president of player development.

The NFL is the only other professional sport with more than a million Twitter followers (1.11 million). Some others: Major League Baseball (506,000), PGA Tour (16,000), WNBA (9,800), NHL (6,000), LPGA (4,000).

Shaq has nearly 50,000 times more Twitter followers than does Starting Blocks, which has 46 followers at last check, and a Twitter address of @sblocks

"Shaq Vs." No. 1, too: O'Neal's television reality series, "Shaq. Vs.," was the most viewed sports-based reality series of the summer, reports the fully interactive sports magazine, SportsArizona:

ABC’s “Shaq Vs.” was the most-viewed sports-based reality TV show of the summer, averaging 3.97 million viewers over five episodes. The show’s finale, which featured Cavaliers center Shaquille O’Neal challenging swimmer Michael Phelps in a race, was the series’ most-viewed episode with 4.432 million viewers. ”Shaq Vs.” showed gains its final three weeks, but no episode finished higher than 46th in the rankings among all broadcast TV primetime shows in a given week.

Here are those sports-based reality shows, with their network and average weekly viewers:

"Shaq Vs." ABC 3,972,000
"The Superstars" ABC 3,619,000
"The T.O. Show" VH1 1,442,000
"4th & Long" Spike 759,000
"Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design" A&E 512,000
"Jockeys" Animal Planet 439,000

source: Starting Blocks