Twitter / @RicBucher: Report on Michael Beasley … via kwout
I’m so glad that Chinese basketball officials put the clamps down on NBA players heading there during the lockout. Following those guys would be absolute hell when you consider how wildly inaccurate the reports out of China can be.
Yesterday, it was a report about Paul Pierce and Michael Beasley reportedly suffering asthma attacks while in China. Pierce later tweeted that the story was wrong, adding “since when did I ever have asthma.” ESPN’s Ric Bucher, in trying to confirm these stories, found out that Michael Beasley’s wrist, which was reportedly broken in that same trip to China, is actually not broken.
The reports out of China were actually quite wild. One report said Beasley mysteriously fell to the ground, was rolling around, and had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. I don’t know if that was a fabrication, or if it was a “lost in translation” scenario. Take the asthma reports, for example. Was this a case of Paul Pierce saying “Man, it’s hard to breathe in here with all this smoke” and someone interpreting it the wrong way? Did Beasley overdo it on a dunk, and say “Wow, that one hurt my wrist,” only to have someone misinterpret it and blow it out of proportion?
Regardless, my lesson has been learned. Reports out of China can be dicey. There may only be a couple of outlets that are trustworthy and even those I’m not 100% sure about. It’s too bad the Beasley story was extremely believable. That’s not to say he won’t do something moronic down the line that gets him into trouble. It just looks like this one was a false alarm.
