Just a little over one year ago, a debate was raging about who should be the top pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.
As surprising as it seems now, the consensus for the majority of the year was Michael Beasley.
The freshman out of Kansas State was putting up numbers comparable to that of Kevin Durant and seemed like the kind of physical specimen that would thrive in the NBA.
Derrick Rose ended up going first to Chicago, a move that proved to be the right one as Rose took home the Rookie of the Year award, and put the Bulls on the brink of upsetting the defending champion Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
Beasley, however, spent a year in Miami trying to figure out his role.
His whole life he had been the scorer, then he ends up on the same team as Dwayne Wade.
It suddenly was not his job to carry the team's scoring needs.
Beasley ended up starting just 18 games, averaging just shy of 14 ppg. However, he had trouble rebounding the ball and averaged just one assist per game.
Statistically he was above average, but it was a giant disappointment to a player who was at one point in time the consensus No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.
It's not like Beasley was the most stable individual before he entered the NBA.
He was notorious for dismissing school as just a roadblock on the way to the pros.
Then in the Rookie Transition Program, which is supposed to help players learn to avoid drug use, Beasley was allegedly in the room with Mario Chalmers and Darrel Arther when they got busted for having pot.
So it's not surprising that when his season of turmoil happened, Beasley was ill-equipped to handle it.
It all started on Twitter. Beasley posted a picture of his new tattoo (pictured above), then sent out these three tweets:
"Y do I feel like the whole world is against me!!!!!!! Back on my FTW!!!!! I can't win for losin!!!!!!!!!!"
"Feelin like it's not worth livin!!!!!!! I'm done"
"not feelin this at all!!!!!"
According to ESPN, Beasley went to Houston to work out, then entered a rehabilitation center there shortly after.
Not much else is known, but even a blind man could see that trouble was coming with young Mr. Beasley.
Only time will tell whether he can pull himself out of it and realize his talent, or go down as a bust afterthought to Derrick Rose.
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