“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?”
The statement was a play on Morant’s real interview with journalist Taylor Rooks in which Morant, a point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies, said he “would’ve cooked” Jordan and afterward declared he “never going to go and say nobody is going to beat me 1-on-1.”
Nevertheless, ESPN decided to dedicate a whole program to the fake quote.
Rooks and Morant immediately criticized the network for its inaccurate reporting and requested that it be corrected.
“He absolutely did not say this in the interview,” Rooks tweeted. “And I can’t believe it was broadcast that he did. There should be a correction issued for that,” she wrote.
In response to Rooks’ tweet, Morant said, “these people crazy.”
The next day, David Jacoby apologized live.
