Below, an interview and workout video of draft hopeful Raven Johnson, a wing player out of Mississippi State who has worked out with the Wizards, and then, his story…

Athletes and politicians represent the two foremost groups that must be weary of the ills of Twitter. Maybe politicians have more to lose in terms of social standing, but the millions Gilbert Arenas ultimately lost due to his 50-game suspension in 2010 by David Stern is nothing to scoff at. It may have been Finger Gunz in Philly which made the final decision possible, but Arenas’ Twitter escapades surrounding his gun incident helped make a strong case for Stern.

In the furor of 24-hour news cycle overreaction to initial misreporting of the December 2009 situation between Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, Rev. Al Sharpton implored Stern to punish with a heavy hand. Before his suspension (which was initially deemed “indefinite”), and before his original @GilbertArenas Twitter account became non-existent, some of Arenas’ last tweets took to criticizing the reverend of inane public profiling. In the present day, however, Arenas continues to get fined by the NBA for tweets deemed inappropriate (for language), which have also been scrutinized because of their misogynistic nature. Future athletes and politicians will surely continue in this out-of-bounds manner on many occasion.

Mississippi State’s Ravern Johnson, a four-year senior who worked out for the Washington Wizards on June 2, also has first-hand knowledge of Twitter’s tribulations on the college level, albeit much more trivial in comparison to Arenas. In early February 2010, one of Johnson’s tweets, seemingly expressing frustration about a tough season, was deemed “inappropriate” by his university. He was also suspended indefinitely, at first. Johnson’s tweets were not utterly flagrant (they are quoted below), but seeing as the failed system of college athletics serves more as a money-making venture for institutions than it does to serve the athletes and the sport, it makes total sense that many coaches hold a desperate grasp on their ability to be disciplinarians. Not to say the college landscape isn’t chock full of good stories and genuine benefits, there’s just an obscene imbalance. And not to digress too much into a legit area that’s beside the point, because in this case, the punishment remained just. Being dumb enough to Tweet something likely to be viewed as dumb is no excuse.

Johnson’s Tweets (via Clarion-Ledger.com):

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One moment you’ll hear that NBA team pre-draft workouts don’t mean much, they can be just one of many contact points a franchise has with a player, much less game film scouting. The next moment it’s considered a “telling sign” when a player doesn’t workout for a certain team. Sign of what? Who knows. Are players disinterested? Trying to rig their draft stock? Are teams disinterested? Throwing others off the scent of their desire? Oh the game that’s played — what do all the conflicting reports mean Enes Kanter?

Both sides can use the perception of workouts to their advantage. And the media to a certain extent as well, I suppose. If you feed the monster pixels, we all whore for hits. Kemba Walker cancels his workout against Jimmer Ferdette for the Sacramento Kings … speculate amongst yourselves, Internets. Other players, less secure in their draft status, are just jumping into another window of opportunity, perhaps building a resume toward overseas interest. These workouts, just as anything, are all part of the process. Whatever that means.

Last Thursday, June 2, the Wizards worked out six players: Talor Battle (Penn State), Mike Davis (Illinois), Papa Dia (SMU), Austin Freeman (Georgetown), Justin Hurtt (Tulsa), and Ravern Johnson (Mississippi State).

Toward the latter third of the hour and a half session, the media is let in to watch, joining the already studying eyes of team executives overlooking the Verizon Center practice court while Flip Saunders and the coaching staff put the players through drills.

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[Skateboarder in Central Park, NYC, taken from pedicab, 2010 NBA Draft Weekend - K. Weidie]

Figured some pictures of Yi Jianlian would be apt.

{image via www.osports.cn/RealGM}

Not sure when this picture was taken, but damn that guy’s arms are ripped. Even the dude in the background looks pretty shocked.

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Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado worked out for the Washington Wizards on Memorial Day. Below is a break down of his Chicago Pre-Draft camp measurements and his Wizards post-workout interview.

Jarvis Varnado is a very soft spoken guy. In fact, I’d call him downright shy … at least in terms of his interview demeanor. He’s the anti-Omar Samhan.

Varnado is an especially intriguing prospect to me. Being a Mississippi State alum and someone who worked with the men’s basketball team while there (I left MSU in 2003, Varnado started his four years as a Bulldog in 2006), I’ve followed his career very closely.

Varnado, nicknamed “SWAT”, is most known for his defensive presence. He finished his career with 564 blocked shots, the most in NCAA history, averaging four blocks per game over career. He has natural instinct, usually not leaving his feet to gamble on pump fakes, but also has “quick hops” in his ability to recover on second and third jumps. And as many shots as he blocked, he changed and intimidated a ton more, and often against players who thought they could out-smart him by going into his body. He is an intelligent, disciplined defensive player.

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Prior to the Wizards-Knicks game, Rashad Mobley of Hoops Addict and myself stopped to chat with Jonathan Bender of the New York Knicks, a man on a long-shot comeback attempt. Rashad has his piece posted on Hoops Addict, mine is posted below.

Jonathan Bender broke Michael Jordan’s McDonald’s All-American game scoring record when he dropped 31 points in the 1999 game, besting his Airness by one point.

That performance was on the stage Bender needed to forgo his verbal commitment to Mississippi State University and enter the NBA draft, becoming who I believe is the first modern-day high school player to jump to the NBA after actually committing to a school. They say Kobe Bryant would have gone to Duke, but he never offered his commitment. Today, despite being called one of the 20 biggest busts in modern NBA draft history by Sports Illustrated in 2005, Bender doesn’t think twice about the choice he made over 10 years ago to follow in the prep-to-pros footsteps of those such as Kevin Garnett.

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>> So Joakim Noah wants to be a rapper? Go look in a mirror kid, I bet you see Troy Hudson.

>> A Mississippi State fan powered by whiskey? Really? Who knew? I was able to catch the final 5 minutes of the Bulldogs’ win against Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. In a 10-3 game where the only TD scored came with just under 4 minutes left, five was all that was needed. In any case, this post from Mr. Irrelevant reminded me of what I saw in those waning minutes, along with what happens when college freshmen are powered by Jack D in Tennessee.

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Chris Cooley‘s current fiancée (right) used to be a Redskins cheerleader, until she got fired for dating him. I’d say that it’s worked out well for the both of them.

I don’t like the Boston Red Sox, but I do like Jonathan Papelbon. Why? I went to college with him. Got some stories, ain’t telling them. Nice article on Papelbon in the Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American…..where we find out that his dog ate the ball from the final out in the Red Sox ’07 World Series win. Wild and crazy guy? Yes. Down to earth? Definitely.

Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies….and what do ya know, here’s a real-life escape story similar to the movie. Either you can’t go wrong with a name like Otis Blunt, or you must go wrong with a name like Otis Blunt. And c’mon Mr. Espinosa – haven’t you learned anything from P-Diddy? That face is atrocious!

Mississippi State’s Jamont Gordon is getting his props on ESPN.com. The Bulldogs? Well, they’re not doing so well.

Stories about how alcoholism affects people never ceases to amaze me. Former NBAer, Keon Clark (right), says that at one point, he was up to drinking a half pint of gin every day, and at times, drinking during halftime of games during his NBA career.

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>> A Big-Ups to Sylvester Croom of Mississippi State University. The first black head coach in Southeastern Conference football history has been named coach of the year for the SEC. He’s done a great job in turning around a struggling Mississippi State program which was left on probation after the tumultuous Jackie Sherrill era. Here is a link to a cool collection of Croom photos through the years.

>> I often ask, what would life be like without cell phones? I mean, we couldn’t imagine living without them in this day and age. What on this level is next? YouTube. Without it, I would have never been able to witness Steve Kerr, Kenny Lofton, Tom Tolbert, Jud Buechler and Sean Elliott, from the 1988 Arizona Wildcats final four team, drop rhymes like crimes.

>> Great feature in Slam Magazine by Vincent Thomas, OJ Mayo: The Papoose of basketball?

Now Vincent’s first impressions of OJ Mayo are very similar to mine. But now, he is seemingly coming around after witnessing Mayo’s shutdown of Memphis’ Derrick Rose. I guess he does have a point…but maybe the kid just has pride, which certainly does not propel him to Kobe or MJ levels of a baller who can D. So yea, maybe OJ Mayo will learn how to take over in crunch time, maybe he will learn how to share the ball with his teammates. Lotta maybes….prove it to me.

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• Hmmm…maybe Scott Skiles doesn’t love Joakim Noah. Then again, I think Noah would know about teams playing together. How many NCAA championships did Skiles win at Michigan State, much less back-2-back? None.

  But really, I liked Scott Skiles the player a lot, especially when he was a Bullet. They just don’t make ‘em hard-nosed like that cat anymore…Adam Morrison would be Skiles’ antithesis. And speaking of hard-nosed..the interesting things you can find on Wikipedia. Did you know that while at Michigan State, Skiles was arrested and charged with cocaine and marijuana possession? The cocaine charge ended up being dropped, but he was later arrested, and spent 15 days in jail, for drunk driving. I suppose partying with Scotty back in the day would be akin to partying with this character from Conan O’Brien. [Damn, I wish I had a video]

• Jamont Gordon is putting Mississippi State on the radar – And no other college coach has had it tougher than Rick Stansbury. My facts could be wrong, but I think Mississippi State is the only program in the country to have three committed players go to the NBA before setting foot on campus (prior to the recent rule change): Jonathan Bender, Travis Outlaw, and Monta Ellis. But he’ll get over it.
• Don’t be like LeBron, be better than him and start yelling at your co-workers. Pronto.

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