There’s a long history of sports news emerging from unconventional sources. The latest apparent case there is a tweet from Wednesday from account @droppingdimes20, with a display name of “The Amateur NBA Analyst” about James Harden. That account’s since been deactivated, but the tweet in question was preserved by Jackson Frank at Uproxx:
At first glance, there would be very little reason to pay attention to that tweet. As per Frank, the account in question only had around 1,000 followers when the tweet was posted, and primarily posted clips analyzing draft prospects. And a ton of people interested in the NBA try to throw out their thoughts on what might happen as reporting on what actually will happen. But this one did actually come true Thursday, with verification both from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic/Stadium:
BREAKING: 76ers G James Harden is picking up his $35.6 million option and sides are beginning to work together in exploring trade scenarios, sources tell ESPN. It’s expected that Harden has played his last game for Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/GguWgysfNZ
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2023
James Harden, 76ers begin working on a trade out of Philadelphia — with the Los Angeles Clippers expected to emerge as an interested team in Harden, league sources say.
Details at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/FLYnbWVHj9
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2023
This led to the @droppingdimes20 account taking off, tweeting “IM HIM” and more, but then suddenly vanishing. The account only briefly returned to clarify that other accounts with similar names popping up were not from the same person, then deactivated again. But they certainly managed to make an impact here.
As mentioned above, there have been many cases over the years of unusual figures breaking sports news before insiders. The clubhouse leader may be Reddit users katyperrysbootyhole and wetbutt23 breaking a Jose Quintana trade in 2017, but a few of the many others include Twitter user FredTheDog04 spreading the news of Zdeno Chara’s broken jaw in 2019, liquor store employee Katie Camlin breaking the Patrick Mahomes extension in 2020 (then partnering with the team to announce Chris Jones’ extension), and Braves’ fan Brian Chandler breaking their signing of Yasiel Puig in 2020 (from running into him at a hotel), and former NFL coach Mike Tice breaking Nick Rolovich’s firing from Washington State in 2021. It now looks like @droppingdimes20 has joined that category. And whether that was from a guess or an actual source, they did manage to call this Harden news.
[Uproxx]
