1. First, “Big Baby” posts on Twitter about being impatient waiting for his big fat contract to come through.
2. Then, the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy writes a column reporting that Glen Davis is upset with the Celtics based on said Twitter account, without verifying with anyone that it is actually Glen Davis’ real Twitter account.
3. Then, Glen Davis informs Danny Ainge that the Twitter account isn’t his and whoever has been tweeting is in fact, an imposter.
4. Then, the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy writes a column claiming that Glen Davis is claiming that the account on Twitter is actually run by an imposter (insinuating that maybe Davis is just saying that it’s not his.)

You know, as opposed to admitting that he wrote a column without basic fact checking to verify that the Twitter account was in fact belonging to Glen Davis. A quick call to the Celtics organization. An email to Glen’s agent. Something? Anything? No, apparently it was enough to just go to a Twitter profile where the name was filled in as “Glen Davis”.

Personally, I wasn’t following this imposter because I was suspicious from the get-go (as I am with most NBA player Twitter accounts until they’re verified.) The biggest reason I suspected it was a fake? This background image:

Even though we all think of Glen as this big doofus who would post a picture like that to his Twitter, I don’t think he thinks of himself that way. Even if I did believe it was him though, it’s one thing for fans to fall for fake Twitter profiles and quite another for journalists to fall for them and write columns based on their contents. Worse yet though, is for a journalist to fall for a fake profile, write a column based on it and then not admit to his mistake.

Shame on you, Mark Murphy.

ps. It’s amazing to me that an imposter could cause or potentially cause real damage to a person’s career and not get his profile suspended (as of 8:30pm EST 8/7). But, poor Hugging Harold Reynolds (the blog, not the human being) got suspended for 2 days for doing nothing wrong. You’re right on the ball, Twitter!

Related links:

• Twitter: @bigbabybball
• Boston Herald: Glen Davis upset with Celtics
• Boston Herald: Big Baby Glen Davis cries imposter about tweeting tantrum

From the get-go though, the @LeonPowe account didn’t smell right. I asked a few people and nobody knew and then Marbury responded to an @ reply that he’d ask him personally at shoot-around. Before I had a chance to ask him again today about it, I saw this article from WEEI.com. It definitely leaves no doubt as to the legitimacy of the account.

Excerpt from: WEEI.com > To Tweet or Not to Tweet by Jessica Camerato

For every player who has a legitimate account, there are even more whose identity is falsified. Take Leon Powe: According to Twitter, he has more than 300 followers who he keeps updated on his knee injury and even the weather. But as it turns out, Powe didn’t even know what Twitter was, let alone manage a profile.

“I don’t even mess with the computers like that. If I did, it would be cool, but nobody has come to me and talked to me about anything like that,” he said, adding, “I think being an athlete, it could be a positive but sometimes it could be a negative, too. Being an athlete, you’re always out there and people are always going to find stories and find what you did eight years ago. So it’s basically the same thing.”

Powe is in favor of using Twitter for a good cause, such as giving away tickets as Pierce does. But it feels invasive to him when people know the miniscule details of his daily life.

“That’s weird to me,” he said. “I don’t do that. I don’t do that. I think that’s weird, but that’s just me. I wouldn’t do it like that. But some players probably like doing that stuff. It’s based on what you like.”

So you can follow @LeonPowe if you want, maybe he/she is a great person… but just keep in mind that it isn’t the real Leon Powe. The real Leon Powe thinks it’s weird.