The Top 10 Most Popular Athletes on Twitter

The Top 10 Most Popular Athletes on Twitter

The biggest athlete in professional sports is also the biggest athlete on Twitter.

NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has the most followers of any athlete on the social media site, with over 3.5 million users reading his tweets. Brazilian soccer star Kaka is second on the list, more than 500,000 followers behind.

Though athletic success is a good yardstick in determining which men and women have the most followers, it's not as reliable an indicator as you'd think. For instance, Tiger Woods isn't in the top 10 but Chad Ochocinco is. (Tiger actually has fewer followers than fellow golfers Stewart Cink and Ian Poulter.) LeBron James cracks the list but comes in behind Reggie Bush. And of all the baseball players with accounts, one-time All-Star Nick Swisher is the most popular. (It doesn't hurt that he's on the New York Yankees.)

Here's the list of the top-10 athletes on Twitter, along with a sample tweet and a summary of their favorite subjects:

Richest Celebrities

Mark Zuckerberg

The world has a new richest man, according to Forbes. But chances are you wouldn't know if Carlos Slim, valued at $53.5 billion, stepped into the room. He doesn't have his own television show, fashion line or personal sneaker. He does have a stranglehold on Mexico's telecommunications industry. For that, we give him a sarcastic "hooray!" After the jump are the billionaires you do know. They're not quite as rich as Slim, but they're a whole lot more sexy (yeah, we're looking at you Mark Zuckerberg)...
Mark Zuckerberg - $4 Billion

Mark, 25, is the youngest billionaire in the world. He's the face behind Facebook, and the undisputed champ of social networking. Speaking of which, he'll be portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg in 'The Social Network,' due in theaters this fall. No word on who will play MySpace's 'Tom.'