2016By Jim Lohmar on

Late in garbage time of the Mavericks-Thunder playoff series Game 4 Saturday, Kevin Durant delivered a vicious, if unintentional, face-swat to Mavericks guard Justin Anderson on a layup attempt. Durant was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul upon review and promptly ejected. It very well could have been accidental on Durant’s part, notwithstanding the violence of the hit, and given the timing, it probably was.

After the game, The Dallas Morning News’ assistant sports editor Damon Marx tweeted a picture of Durant and Anderson shaking hands in an apparent “we’re good” meeting between opponents. 

 

ESPN’s Chris Broussard, who’s taken plenty of previous criticism for his journalistic practices, then screencapped Marx’s picture and then tweeted it as his own, without attribution:

 

 

Unattributed pictures on Twitter are often easily apparent by blank space above and below an image, indicating that someone has probably screengrabbed what’s on their display. It’s lazy and stupid, not least because rotating one’s smartphone will often bring the original image into the original pane.

 

 

Broussard quickly deleted his initial tweet, for some reason, but then doubled down and tweeted again the same screengrab, without attribution, and with the same wording as his original tweet.

 

 

Damon Marx, professional as he is, made sure to remind Broussard of the picture’s origin, while also linking to his beat writer’s excellent writeup on the Durant-Anderson amends.

 

 

Broussard later quoted Marx’s tweet and praised the photo, but didn’t apologize:

Broussard may need a talking to, while Marx needs a raise.

Update: Looks like USA Today’s Sam Amick may have done the same thing shortly after Broussard:

Amick then retweeted Broussard’s tweet giving Marx and the DMN credit, but still, doing so in a separate tweet is very poor sourcing.

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