WNBA/Unrivaled star Angel Reese often makes headlines for her bold comments. But on at least three occasions in the last week, Reese has been under discussion for things she didn’t say. The latest example there comes from NBA aggregator account Hoops Central on Facebook, which did a post on a fake Reese quote manufactured by satire site The Sports Memery:
More than 15 hours after Hoops Central posted that to Facebook, their post remains up and unmodified, with a lot of people arguing in the comments about Reese daring to compare herself to Jordan. And that post has been seen by a lot of people, with the account boasting more than 10 million followers.
This comes just a few days after two previous controversies around fake Reese quotes. One started with an Elite Gridiron Facebook account that said Reese claimed WNBA players “should be getting paid like NBA players,” a quote that got picked up by multiple other big aggregators before Reese said it was fabricated. Reese also went after Yahoo Sports and others for sharing a misleading quote claiming she said WNBA players would strike if they didn’t get what they want; she instead said she’d been hearing other people say that.
The Reese situations are far from the first time we’ve seen fake athlete or sports media quotes spread like wildfire. That’s long been an issue, and has become even more of one in a post-verification era on X where anyone can purchase a blue check, and where premium accounts are rewarded based on the engagement they get. There have been other stated motivations for making fake quotes, too, including as skepticism of the current media environment. But whatever’s behind individual fake quote generation, it’s remarkable to see the way many of these quotes spread, especially when it comes to Reese.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.