Big Brother

Twitter strikes again. First there was J.R. Smith being akkused of gang affiliation due to his Twitter tweets. Then Stephen Marbury damaged his hopes of getting signed for next season with his crazy Tweets and webcam shows. Now Michael Beasley has reportedly checked himself into rehab, apparently for treatment for depression. No doubt the fallout over his recent infamous Twitter photo contributed to this turn of events. Which shows the dangers this new 24-hour, all-access media world we live in poses to “celebrities”.

This “Big Brother Is Watching” world is great for us fans and writers, as we get much more access and “scoops” than ever before. But it also brings out the worst in us. We want athletes to be interesting and accessible, but at the same time we love to jump all over them at the slightest slip-up. One of the great aspects of Michael Beasley is (was?) his joye de vivre – he admitted he was still a kid, literally and figuratively, and he was going to enjoy himself. Sure he might be a knucklehead sometimes, but he is in no way a bad guy or someone who is going to be showing up on the police blotter. Now we’re sucking the life out of him. Now if he does indeed have a substance abuse problem we can’t be blamed for that, but we can be blamed if the man is suffering from depression. The internet is such a dangerous tool, all it took was for one person to comment about the baggies in the background of that photo for the wildfire to spread. Mainstream media jumped all over the story, this website jumped all over it, and next thing you know that guy checks himself into rehab. Shame on all of us.

The other sad part of this situation is athletes are going to become much more careful what they let be known to the public. Guys are already shutting down their Twitter accounts and the ones that still have them are probably going to end up looking like a publicist wrote it for them. We’ll still have the Marburys and Ron Artests of the world that don’t care what people think, but for the rest of the image-conscious athlete, they’ll think twice before Tweeting. Which means more lame posts like “Off to the gym” or “watching a movie”. We love building up our stars, but we love tearing them down even more. Technology just makes it easier for us to do so.

Here’s hoping Beasley comes out of rehab as the happy-go-lucky kid we all remember him as. And here’s hoping he can add to his already impressive highlight reel on the court.

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