Skepticism in the Age of Modern Social Sports Reporting

The biggest NBA trade in years shows us a truth: we’re more skeptical than ever

It’s 12:36 AM and everyone’s phones start buzzing. ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania posted a trade update to his social media accounts. But the trade was so unexpected that many didn’t believe that it was real. The trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a first-round draft pick felt so far-fetched that it had to be fake.

The immediate reaction by many was that there was no way that a team would trade away one of the best players in basketball in his prime for a package that didn’t include a king’s ransom of draft picks. The pushback on the validity of the trade was so fierce that it prompted speculation that Charania’s X account was hacked. The noise was so loud in fact that he had to issue a clarifying post that he wasn’t hacked and that the trade was indeed “1000% real”.

The fact that Shams had to clarify that he was not hacked and that the trade proposal was indeed factual, says a lot about the magnitude of the trade. But it also sheds a light on the nature of sports reporting and breaking news through social media. In a world of compromised accounts and parody accounts desperate for clout, our minds went to skepticism immediately. This moment in time is a snapshot of…