Michael Beasley's NBA career has never been a smooth ride. Wikipedia is not the ultimate arbiter of this truth, but when the section on Beasley's off-court problems is three times as long as the section on his playing days with the Wolves, that tells you something. It also tells you something when a guy starts off as the No. 2 overall pick in 2008 and then five years later he's back where he started, with two stops in-between, working on a non-guaranteed contract.
But that's where Beasley is -- back in Miami, which dispatched him after the 2009-10 season to create cap space.
The man in charge seems to think this is a good thing: "Michael had the best years of his career with us," Heat president Pat Riley said. "We feel that he can help us."
That quote sent us scurrying on a fact-checking mission, but Riley is correct. Beasley was actually not horse-[redacted] those two years in Miami. Even his first year with the Wolves, though pock-marked by bouts of selfishness, was not terrible. It's really been the last two seasons, on the court, where the downward spiral has happened (one with Minnesota, one in Phoenix).
Can he get his basketball life and his off-court act together? Time will tell, and it will tell quickly.
