Ron Artest's Agent Denies Authenticity of Client's Verified Twitter Account

Ron Artest caused a bit of a flurry Wednesday night when he went on his Twitter account and announced he was signing a new deal. Of course it was all a joke/publicity stunt. However, the activity on his twitter account -- particularly the farewell to Houston tweet -- made Artest's agent David Bauman come out and claim that the Twitter account is a fake.

As athletes have been burned by fake accounts before, we have become pretty good at identifying fake Twitter accounts, and it seems Bauman is wrong about the account in question being a fake.

First, the Artest account has a verified account label, meaning Twitter has gone through the process to make sure that it is Ron Artest's official account. Next, Artest's brother Daniel says he was by Ron's side when the account in question was created. Lastly, right after Ron pulled his followers' leg(s) with his joking tweets, he said he would be on the radio in Sacramento to talk about signing his new deal. And what do you know, Ron was on the station doing just what he said he would be doing. Of course he was talking about his new record contract, but you get the point.

The only reason I decided to write this was Bauman's jab toward new media stating "That's what happens with the so-called new media." No, that's not what happens with "new media." We have systems in place to verify what's real and what isn't. Mr. Bauman is obviously trying to protect his negotiating position with the Houston Rockets -- a difficult thing to do with an unpredictable client -- but that is no reason to throw new media under the bus.