Stephen A. Smith had to maintain some distance from Oklahoma City Thunder player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, even if he voted for the young player to win NBA MVP this season.
Smith cited a post from SGA on the 2019 trade of Gilgeous-Alexander to the Los Angeles Clippers during a debate with Shannon Sharpe on First Take over. If the Thunder leader was openly showing off for his former squad, then Smith saw it as proof of just how horrible things really were.
The post was fake, that’s all. The spoof basketball account “NBACentel” shared a bogus image of SGA’s Instagram story last week, complete with a graphic displaying the trade specifics and a contemplating emoji.
Ballsack Sports, another notorious parody account, celebrated a victory lap after Smith ran with it on Tuesday.
LMAAAAAAOOOOOO HEYYYY @ESPN WE’RE BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK https://t.co/9FHUrLjnDM pic.twitter.com/ie8LATbOjx
— Ballsack Sports (@BallsackSports) May 7, 2024
In addition to succumbing to the deceptive post, Smith also let SGA’s Instagram story to do the most of the talking while dissecting the Clippers in light of their transaction. Smith said,
“You got a young thoroughbred who’s in the playoffs calling you out, saying, ‘y’all gave me up, along with all of that for what you got,’”. “You’ve got to move in a different direction if you’re the Clippers.”
NBA Centel clearly mention in their bio : “PARODY/FAN ACCOUNT.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posted this on his IG😭 pic.twitter.com/ZBRz7tYH4g
— NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) May 4, 2024
The post claiming Brooklyn Nets stars Kyrie Irving and James Harden got into a fight was the most famous one that Smith fell for from the original sports parody account Ballsack Sports in early 2022. In previous years, other ESPN commentators have published similarly absurd fake stories from Ballsack and other parody accounts.
Even This Just In impromptu host, David Jacoby, apologized live for reciting a phony quotation from troubled NBA player Ja Morant in its entirety.
The owner of Ballsack Sports used easter eggs in their posts to draw attention to sports hosts’ low media literacy. In the opposite direction, NBACentel created a fake screenshot of an athlete’s Instagram account along with a tale that vanishes in a day. But all-caps parodies and misspelled account names ought to promote some degree of fact-checking.
Flip the pages to see the Twitter reactions.
