There have been many cases of people falling for fake insiders on Twitter. Golden State Warriors’ forward Draymond Green took it perhaps even further Wednesday, going after (and tagging) Kevin Durant over a fake quote distributed by a fake aggregator, “TheNBACentel.” Green eventually deleted the tweet after Garnett said it was fake (and asked Twitter owner Elon Musk for help with “verified” fake accounts):
draymond trying to start beef over a fake quote is unreal and peak NBA twitter pic.twitter.com/oq8W3eDKWu
— Molly Morrison (@mollyhannahm) July 19, 2023
That’s a fake tweet. “NBA Centel”… @elonmusk see wtf is happening 🤣🤣
Fix it. https://t.co/KtcoqTonfJ
— Kevin Garnett (@KevinGarnett5KG) July 19, 2023
(Interestingly enough, Musk did seemingly take note. @TheNBACentel is now suspended.)
The fake tweet had Garnett supposedly saying “Draymond punching JP (Jordan Poole) is like a senior punching a freshman who’s half his size and then walks around talking himself up as if he’s like that. Come try me Dray.” Green then reacted with “I tried you when I was a Rookie KG, and you started talking to yourself like I wasn’t talking to you. What’s that like? The freshman picking on a senior citizen that’s double his size? @KevinGarnett5KG.” Garnett then responded with “It’s a fake tweet. “NBA Centel.”… @elonmusk see wtf is happening. Fix it.”
There have been lots of cases of fake quotes fooling news outlets (and even pre-Elon Twitter) in the past. But it’s interesting to see one fooling a prominent athlete. And it’s interesting to see a second fake quote from “NBA Centel” widely take off in the span of a week; they previously came up with one that Kevin Durant called out.
This is just the latest notable media thing involving Green. Green has been contributing to then-Turner, now-Warner Bros. Discovery NBA coverage for years now (on a more frequent basis since 2022), sometimes in controversial fashion. And he’s also stirred up plenty of controversy with his media feuds and his podcast. And that’s before his actual controversy around his punch of then-Warriors teammate Poole last year, and the ways he’s discussed (or not discussed) that on his various media platforms.
It’s also interesting to see Green now going at Garnett. Garnett is a notable media figure in his own right with past work for TNT and NBA TV and current work for Showtime and his own streaming channel, and he’s also one who’s proven quite willing to go at critics. So it’s notable to see Garnett take the high road in response and appeal to Musk about the dangers of “verified” accounts posting fake quotes. Of course, many have been making that case for a long time, but it does seem that Musk (and/or others at Twitter) maybe took this a little more seriously with the appeal coming from a NBA legend and media mogul, and with the fake tweet fooling another high-profile NBA figure.
[Molly Morrison on Twitter]
