Stephen A Smith may have voted for Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for NBA MVP this season, but he must not be keeping very close tabs on the young man.
While debating Shannon Sharpe on Tuesday morning’s First Take over whether the Los Angeles Clippers made a mistake trading Gilgeous-Alexander away in 2019, Smith referred to a post from SGA about that trade. To Smith, it was evidence of just how bad it was if the Thunder leader was publicly flexing on his former team.
Only the post wasn’t real. Last week, the basketball parody account “NBACentel” posted a fake screenshot of SGA’s Instagram story with a thinking emoji and a graphic showing the trade details.
After Smith ran with it on Tuesday, fellow infamous parody account Ballsack Sports took a victory lap.
LMAAAAAAOOOOOO HEYYYY @ESPN WE’RE BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK https://t.co/9FHUrLjnDM pic.twitter.com/ie8LATbOjx
— Ballsack Sports (@BallsackSports) May 7, 2024
Not only did Smith fall for the trick post, but he also let SGA’s Instagram story do most of the arguing for him while eviscerating the Clippers for their trade.
“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,'” Smith said. “You’ve got to move in a different direction if you’re the Clippers.”
Of course, the NBACentel account that posted the dupe screenshot features a distinctive line in its bio on X: “PARODY/FAN ACCOUNT.”
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentel/status/1786615678813786409
Smith most notably fell for a post from the original sports parody account Ballsack Sports in early 2022, which claimed Brooklyn Nets stars Kyrie Irving and James Harden got in a fight.
Other ESPN personalities ran with similarly outlandish faux-reports from Ballsack and other parody accounts in recent years. Substitute This Just In host David Jacoby even issued an apology on air for reading a fake quote from beleaguered NBA star Ja Morant in full.
The Ballsack Sports owner certainly put easter eggs in their posts to highlight poor media literacy among sports hosts. NBACentel did no such favor, fabricating a screenshot of an athlete’s Instagram account (and a story, which disappears in 24 hours, no less). However, parody in all caps and incorrectly spelled account names should encourage a certain level of fact-checking.
Some day, Smith will learn.
