Colin Cowherd is back from vacation, but apparently, he didn’t have enough time to fact-check a Luka Dončić rumor before the show.
Last week, the satirical social media account NBA Centel posted, “Breaking: The Mavericks organization has announced they will ban fans from wearing Luka Doncic jerseys as a way to move forward from him.” A post that garnered over 22 million impressions.
Considering the backlash after Dallas sent Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade centered around Anthony Davis, many immediately believed the post. However, those who believed the post failed to consider the source, Cowherd among them.
“Tomorrow, Lakers play Dallas,” Cowherd told Rachel Nichols during Monday’s edition of The Herd. “I saw a story where they won’t let Luka jerseys in the building in Dallas.”
Maybe Cowherd saw it from NBA Centel, maybe he saw it from another aggregator, or maybe someone just casually told him about the report. But wherever Cowherd saw it, he didn’t see it from the Mavericks because it’s not true. Add Cowherd to the very long list of sports media personalities to be duped by satire accounts such as NBA Centel or Ballsack Sports.
Cowherd has made his share of mistakes on-air throughout his long career, but you would expect his antenna to go up over the idea of the Mavericks attempting to police Luka jerseys out of their building. What would they do when an eight-year-old who was gifted a Dončić jersey two months ago during the holidays enters the arena?
You could see Nichols’ smile fade as Cowherd began to share the fake report, although she stopped short of correcting the FS1 and Fox Sports Radio host. At least Cowherd and his production staff didn’t build an entire segment around the fake news. But still, getting duped by a satirical social media account is never a good look.