Two Sundays ago as the Grammy Awards broadcast on television, Anthony Wright played one part critic, one part social commentator, one part comedian.

Most who know Wright recognize his name and face as a basketball player, a senior on the Michigan basketball team. Wright is aiming for more. Too often, players are judged by their on-court accomplishments, he surmises, but not for the entire person.

Which brings us back to the Grammy’s and his Twitter account. He tweeted, in 140 character bursts on the social media network, about how Mos Def speaks, closing his eyes listening to Bon Jovi and imagining playing Guitar Hero and then making the requisite Kanye West Video Music Awards joke when Taylor Swift picked up Album of the Year, typing “Kanye please show up… PLEASE… This girl is HORRIBLE!!! I’d rather buy NOW 3 than Taylor Swift’s album..”

Wright embraced social media better than any other Michigan athlete and with more gusto than most college athletes. Last year, he gave away a pair of tickets for the first round of the Big Ten tournament through Facebook. He’s often tweeted a short message reminding fans his team is playing tonight - something he could do again Thursday when the Wolverines (11-12, 4-7 Big Ten) play at Minnesota (14-8, 5-5).

This year, he announced the birth of his daughter, Jordyn Cherelle Wright, over Twitter in December and then played in Michigan’s 75-64 win over Detroit a day later. He was tired, having barely slept the prior three days, but played on an adrenaline high.

And he took his followers on Twitter along for the ride - as he does with almost everything in his life. His rules for himself are simple. He doesn’t curse and he doesn’t try to “disrespect people to the max.” His goal is comedy, to make people laugh and smile.

“It’s just a means of just showing people how I’m not just an on-the-court guy and I’m not just a stiff off the court,” Wright said. “Just being able to be loose with everybody in public, whether you’re young or old.”

This has always been part of Wright’s personality. He’s always been pretty comfortable around people, able to adapt to social situations well and has the ability to make others feel comfortable around him within moments of meeting him.

It’s how he dealt with maneuvering through three high schools in his career. Growing up in Sterling, Va., Wright started his freshman year at Bishop O’Connell before leaving midway through the year for reasons he declined to discuss.

It landed him at Fairfax (Va.) Christian School for the remainder of his freshman year. The school - dubbed on its Web site as “the Washington, D.C. area’s premier international student program for lower, middle and high school students” - made Wright stand out. He said he was the tallest person in his class and at the time there wasn’t a real gym for basketball.

“That was weird,” Wright said. “It was a crazy experience.”

His short time at Fairfax Christian gave him two things - perspective and the chance to transfer to Oak Hill Academy, one of the nation’s premier high school basketball programs.

While there, he worked on his game and ended up playing with a bunch of players currently in the NBA, including Rajon Rondo, Ty Lawson, Josh Smith and Michael Beasley. Playing there - and starting on a team that went 40-1 his senior year - helped him go to Michigan.

It also put him in yet another position to hone his social skills, having to fit in with another group of people and adapt to yet another situation.

The personality, though, is something he gets from his mother, Tina.

“Me and my mom act exactly alike,” Wright said. “Very open and just making yourself approachable in a way where anybody is comfortable so I’m going to come off in a way where they are comfortable in whatever I’m talking about. Just being themselves instead of ‘Oh, I’m talking to a Michigan basketball player. I have to speak this way.’

“Just talk the way you want to speak, and we’ll have a great conversation, great acquaintance and friendship.”

It part of why Wright is a behind-the-scenes guy on the Michigan basketball team Early in the season, he pulled freshman Blake McLimans aside and told him to meet him after practice. He wasn’t going to make a scene.

Instead, he wanted to run through every play Michigan coach John Beilein has to help the forward understand what the third-year Wolverines coach was trying to do.

“It’s his personality,” Beilein said. “He’s a team guy.”

Even has minutes have fluctuated throughout the year from starting the Purdue and Michigan State games to not playing at all against Penn State, he’s remained positive while averaging 1.5 points and 1.2 rebounds in 9.2 minutes.

He’s remained light.

Wright is the underrated comedian on the team and perhaps - to the outside world- its most effective communicator.

“He’s kind of a silent comedian. He don’t do a lot of that on the court and some of it in the locker room but Ant is one of the funniest people on the team, besides me, I think,” said senior forward DeShawn Sims, the team’s other prolific tweeter. “He’s my funniest guy on the team. He’s clever, definitely clever.

“What people don’t understand about Ant - he’s a very smart person, knows a lot of things, very articulate. He’s kind of like a smart funny, not upfront loud. He’s definitely a smart, clever funny.”

He’s bringing that to the world - 140 characters at a time.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.