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"Did Twitter just play a major role in the mental breakdown of a superstar athlete?\nMichael Beasley, star forward for the Miami Heat NBA team, checked into a Houston rehabilitation hospital this weekend, for what is being reported as substance abuse and depression issues.  He will apparently stay for at least 30 days and spend time with John Lucas, a well-known former NBA player and coach who works with troubled players.\nWhat makes Beasley's breakdown unique though, is that his admission to rehab was preceded by a series of very disturbing Twitter posts, two deletions of his Twitter account, and a TwitPic that reveals suspicious bags on a table in the background.\nThe Backstory:\nFrom what we can gather, Michael Beasley began to tweet out some disturbing things late last week.  The Twitter updates came from his account @GorillaBeas, which is now deleted.  \nHere are the tweets that he sent out, caught in the Google cache of his deleted Twitter page:\n\n\n\n\nAnd here is some of the reaction from his followers:\n\n\n\n\nWhat really has sparked controversy though is a TwitPic that Michael Beasley posted showing off the SupercoolBeas tattoo on his back.  On the bottom right hand corner of the image are bags filled with what some believe to be marijuana or another illegal drug.  There's no way to tell though, because the picture is not clear enough to tell.\nHere is the picture in question:\n\n\n\n\nSocial Media Is an Open Platform.  To Good and to Bad.\nTwitter has given us a very open looking glass into the lives of our friends and the celebrities we like to talk about. For the most part, it's been a great benefit to celebrities who have been able to connect with fans in a way not before possible.\nHowever, there have been times where it's given us a look into disturbing thoughts and events.  For example, a tweet from Demi Moore is credited with preventing the suicide of a middle-aged woman who tweeted that she was going to cut herself.\nBeasley is another case of this phenomenon.  He's had a history of immature behavior and has been fined by the NBA before for being in the vicinity of marijuana.  Sending those tweets and that picture only drew scrutiny to him.  It may have been the thing that even got him into rehab.  \nJust remember that with an open social web, you're not only going to get the good, but sometimes the bad.  Addressing psychological issues before tweeting or blogging is a sensible idea, because this type of thing could happen to anyone."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/08/24/michael-beasley-twitter/>