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Ballsack Sports dupes Stephen A. Smith with phony Kyrie Irving rumor

Danny Small
kyrie irving james harden
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Stephen A. Smith might have the largest platform of anyone in sports media, but that doesn’t mean he gets everything right. Magic Johnson came on “First Take” to discuss a wide range of NBA news, including Kyrie Irving and James Harden. Who says all of that news needs to be true?

Ballsack Sports claims another victim. The formula is simple — make a graphic with a quote that is wild, but halfway plausible. My guess is Smith was scrolling Twitter, glanced at this graphic briefly, and put it to memory. Either that or someone else passed along the information secondhand.

Kevin Durant chimed in at his favorite ESPN personality.

Smith has no excuse for misspeaking on his latest “First Take” gaffe. He’s been talking about these Brooklyn Nets “reports” about a scuffle for almost a month.

https://twitter.com/BallsackSports/status/1502819029802754049?s=20&t=o8C_b0u2YuEI8nK8E_U6wQ

Although the Harden-Nets divorce wasn’t pretty, it doesn’t sound like it was anything close to this fake report. It pays for Smith to believe and parrot the craziest theories, but there was no scrimmage scuffle between Irving and Harden.

ESPN personality/gasbag Kendrick Perkins was fooled by this same exact report earlier this season. It only took one fake report for Perkins to come around on Irving.

This isn’t the first time Ballsack Sports has been in the NBA news cycle this year. Sixers general manager Daryl Morey referenced the Twitter account before the trade deadline.

Aside from the Ballsack news, the Nets are focusing on the last four games of the season. Brooklyn is in 10th place in the Eastern Conference and if those standings hold, they will need to win two games on the road to snag the eighth seed.

The Nets will play the Houston Rockets at Barclays Center on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m. ET).

Danny Small
Danny Small

Commercial content writer for Sportradar. Never had the makings of a varsity athlete.