An NBA league source tells ESPN’s Marc Stein that the league will unveil “minimal” guidelines for players, coaches and other team officials using Twitter and other social media sites this week.

Stein writes:

The primary restriction of the policy is expected to prevent various team representatives from tweeting during games, after the stir caused late last season when Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva, then with Milwaukee, tweeted from the Bucks’ locker room during halftime.

Stein also reports that the NBA will allow individual teams to set their own organizational guidelines for the use of social media in a manner similar to how some teams have adopted a strict dress code which goes beyond the league mandated dress code.

Edit- The NBA released its policy on Wednesday and it is exactly as Stein reported. For the record, Shaq said he has no problem with the new policy.

Recently the Toronto Maple Leafs became the 30th and final NHL franchise to join Twitter. By our count, the NHL is now the first of the four major leagues with all of its member franchises on the social networking site. As NHL teams warm to Twitter just in time for the ’09-’10 NHL season, it seems that NHL players are also growing more active on the site.

This week we confirmed that Nashville Predators goalie Dan Ellis and the recently retired defenseman Bret Hedican are the two newest NHL players on Twitter. Ellis joins his teammate Steve Sullivan on the site while Hedican is said to be interested in using social media to help publicize wife Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream Foundation.

While the NHL has by far the fewest number of active players using Twitter of any of the four major sports, the fact that the league now has all of its teams on Twitter makes league-wide, cohesive social media marketing plans even easier to implement. As a hockey fan, what are some of the ways you would like to see the NHL and its teams and players use Twitter this season? Which players would you like to hear from the most?

This season you can experience behind-the-scenes access like never before by following all your favorite players, teams, front office personnel and team beat writers on Twitter. The list of NFL stars on Twitter grows by the day. If you’re looking for confirmed NFL players on Twitter, click on the “Complete List” tab at the top of the page and then click the NFL tab, the second tab on the bottom.

For a directory of NFL media on Twitter, click the “Media” tab at the bottom of the same screen and scroll down to the NFL list. Happy Opening Weekend 2009!