Kevin Garnett’s dust-up with Carmelo Anthony reached tabloid proportions when it was “reported” that he made a Honey Nut Cheerios comment about Melo’s wife.
Despite the sketchy source of this report, the media has gradually accepted it as fact. I’m not talking about bloggers and tabloids, I’m talking about legitimate reporters and analysts. They may not be writing feature length articles about it, but they’re passing it along on social media.
During an appearance this morning on WEEI, Doc Rivers denied the legitimacy of the story:
“I know what’s being reported did not happen. I know that as a fact,” said Rivers. “You know how this works, a guy does something crazy like Carmelo did, and the way to get of trouble is to say someone else said this. It happens all the time. And what bugs me about this is that this is not a Kevin Garnett issue. And it was made into one and it shouldn’t have been made into one.”
Jared Sullinger also denied the report during a midday appearance on WEEI.
Garnett’s reputation as a world renown trash-talker is partly to blame. Remember the alleged cancer patient comment he made to Charlie Villanueva?
Esquire is now reporting as fact, an old, unsubstantiated rumor that Garnett once wished happy Mother’s day to Tim Duncan despite knowing his mom died of breast cancer. This report was passed along to me, as fact, by some blowhards on WEEI.
There was once a time when the mainstream media would ignore such nonsense. Not anymore. I’m not sure why I find this surprising. The line between news and rumor has been blurred for a while. I guess I figured there was a line they wouldn’t cross. Guess I was wrong.
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