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ESPN was duped again. During an episode of This Just In, ESPN aired an entire segment that was dedicated to a fake Ja Morant quote that was tweeted out by Ballsack Sports.
In the fake quote, “Morant” claimed that Michael Jordan would have been nothing more than “just another superstar” if he played in today’s NBA.
The quote followed an actual Morant interview with Taylor Rooks where he said he would beat Michael Jordan 1-on-1.
“If you put MJ in today’s game he’s just another superstar,” the fake quote read. “We got me, Steph, Luka, Dame, Trae – and then guys like Bron, KD, Giannis, Kawhi – it’s not just one superstar and a bunch of you know, average dudes, you feel?”
ESPN bought the fake quote; hook, line, and sinker.
Rooks sent out a tweet defending Morant for never saying that during their interview, which led to ESPN releasing an on-air apology.
ESPN just issued a public apology after falling for @BallsackSports, I’m not even joking pic.twitter.com/CFaIcbFntv
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) July 12, 2022
“We made a mistake,” David Jacoby said. “We attributed a quote to Ja Morant’s appearances on Taylor Rooks’ show on Bleacher Report that he simply did not say. On behalf of the network, the show’s staff, and myself, I’d like to apologize to Ja and Taylor for our error. We will work hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
It’s always wild that in 2022 we still have major networks getting duped by parody accounts on Twitter, but it won’t be the last time either.
