Fool me once … I’m Kendrick Perkins.
The former NBA big man and current ESPN analyst was duped by a viral Twitter rumor about Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, falsely claiming he had shot up to 7-foot-2.
“From reports, I’m hearing that Jonathan Kuminga is now 7-2,” Perkins said on “SportsCenter” Tuesday.
“The kid has gotten better every single season.”
The problem is, Kuminga is 6-foot-7 and has not grown seven inches in the past few months, as that would be nearly impossible.
The rumor started when a Warriors fan account posted a fake quote from Golden State guard Moses Moody, in which he “said” that Kuminga had a growth spurt.
“I’m not lying… he’s tall as f–k now,” the fake quote read, with claims that he had grown to seven feet tall.
The Twitter user who posted it quickly admitted the quote was fake after it started to take off, but former Warriors star Andre Iguodala fanned the flames of the rumor by responding directly to the first tweet.
“I just saw JK. He 7’2,” Iguodala wrote.
That’s when the joke turned into a full-fledged viral meme; a Twitter account called KumingaMuse posted a photoshopped picture of Kuminga standing next to Warriors guard Jordan Poole, appearing to tower over him.
Apparently, that was enough for Perkins, who confidently stated it as fact during his Tuesday appearance.
Later, after he learned he was duped, Perkins tweeted, “I hate this damn app,” with three crying-laughing emojis.
It’s not the first time the former NBA star has been fooled by fake viral tweets.
Last year, Perkins fell for a quote from the Twitter account “Ballsack Sports,” a satirical account that purposefully puts out fake quotes in high-quality graphics in the hope that established members of the sports media world buy them.
The “quote” was an anecdote from Nets practice when James Harden and Kyrie Irving were both still on the team, claiming Irving “demoralized” Harden by locking him down in practice, and that he called the current Sixers guard “washed.”
Perkins, believing it was true, brought up the quote a month later on ESPN.
“All those rumors and stories that we heard about Kyrie and James Harden in practice with the Nets, and Kyrie going at him. Guess what? Kyrie showed us last night that those were facts and that was true!” Perkins said.