• Loading stock data...
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Tuned In is Almost Sold Out! Limited Tickets Remain!

Meet the Man Behind NBA Centel, Who Keeps Fooling Fans on Twitter

  • X allows subscribers who pay for X Premium to earn money from user engagement, which incentivizes some aggregators to push the envelope.
  • The misinformation landscape—by way of parody news accounts—may be the new norm.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) looks on against the Golden State Warriors in the first quarter during a preseason game at T-Mobile Arena.
Candice Ward-Imagn Images

When news spread of Sean “Diddy” Combs’s arrest on racketeering and sex trafficking charges on Sept. 16, Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson appeared to have gotten LeBron James’s take on the matter. 

“It’s crazy, I was bumping to ‘Mo Money Mo Problem’ earlier today in the car and I had a weird feeling today was the day the feds will catch Diddy,” James supposedly said, according to @TheNBACentel, which credited the quote to Robinson. 

The problem: The Lakers star never said it. And Robinson, a longtime NBA insider who is currently freelance, never reported that James said it. 

The NBA Centel account parodies the basketball news aggregator NBA Central, which has 1.7 million followers and has been criticized for its own inaccuracy. NBACentel has 154,000 followers and despite disclosing in its profile that it is a parody, continues to fool many. 

“Honestly, most of them at this point are hilarious because you know that it’s bullshit,” Robinson tells Front Office Sports. “But where it gets touchy for me and where it blurs the line on whether people think it’s real or b.s.—like when Diddy got arrested. My contacts in entertainment were texting me saying, ‘Congratulations for the quote from LeBron.’ I replied that I didn’t talk to LeBron at all about this.”

The fake news that gains traction from @TheNBACentel has led to a term that Merriam-Webster jokingly recognized this month: “centel’d.” The fact-checking website Snopes even weighed in on the James-Diddy tweet and gave it a “false” rating.  

Getting centel’d involves duping people into believing, for example, a tweet that said Kevin Durant said he’s single because he’s “not dealing with the headache of debating ball with a woman who can’t name my MVP year or break down a pick-and-roll.”

“You got centel’d,” Durant responded from his official account. A few minutes later he posted: “Sometimes I wake up and look at @TheNBACentel comments just to truly see how many dummies come online thinking that they have high iq.” 

Aggregator accounts have grown in number and prominence since Elon Musk purchased Twitter two years ago and rebranded the social media company to X. 

As FOS previously reported, the change is due largely to the monetization program launched last year that allows subscribers who pay for X Premium to earn money from their engagement. That gives aggregators an incentive to push the envelope with the only backstop being Community Notes—a user-submitted correction system that demonetizes a post found to be false. 

But fake aggregators like NBA Centel don’t get hit with a Community Note that often. That false James quote about Diddy still doesn’t have a Community Note to debunk its veracity, meaning the person behind the account profited off the nearly eight million views the post has so far garnered. 

Pivot to Parody

FOS interviewed the man behind the account, who hails from Toronto, on condition of anonymity. Beyond his monetary gains from X, he says he makes more on promoting sports betting like the offshore betting company DPB Bet on his feed. 

“Ballsack Sports inspired me and many other troll accounts on this platform,” NBA Centel says, referring to the popular fake sports news X account. “He was the first to truly embrace this style of content, which encouraged me to give it a try and have fun with it. I didn’t expect it to gain as much traction as it did. And yeah, it definitely evolved from the beginning.”

Ballsack Sports, which FOS profiled last year, saw its manufactured quotes from athletes and coaches boosted as actual news by ESPN, Fox News, and other outlets. The man behind Ballsack Sports sounded like a proud father when talking about NBA Centel. 

“Centel has a knack for going viral consistently,” the Ballsack Sports founder, who wished to remain anonymous, recently told FOS. “I think you have those 5% of users that are well-versed on the inner workings of the basketball Twitter space and are ‘in’ on the joke. Then you have the rest of that 95% that probably aren’t as engaged with the app and so are more vulnerable to the bait.” 

“I’ve seen time and time again users post screenshots of their friends, coworkers, and family getting ‘cracked,’ ‘sacked,’ or ‘centel’d,’” he added.

The account now known as NBA Centel started in July 2022, but it had a different handle and focused on regular, non-parody NBA tweets. Last year, the man behind the account says he pivoted to satire and began to gain traction. 

Soon after it was rebranded NBA Centel, the account got Warriors forward Draymond Green to respond to a fake quote from Kevin Garnett in July 2023 on the feud between Green and Golden State teammate Jordan Poole. 

“I tried you when I was a Rookie KG, and you started talking to yourself like I wasn’t talking to you,” Green responded in a now-deleted post. “What’s that like? The freshman picking on a senior citizen that’s double his size?”

Garnett replied that the NBA Centel quote was fake and asked Musk to “fix it.”

Spoofing Other Leagues

There are now other Centels on X for other sports, including the WNBA and NFL. The man behind the NBA Centel account, however, says those aren’t his. 

“They are not run by me,” NBA Centel says. “I only manage @TheNBACentel. All the other ones are just copying me.”

The real NBA Central changed its handle in July 2023 from @TheNBACentral to @TheDunkCentral, but a rep for NBA Central—which also goes by Dunk Central on its website—tells FOS that wasn’t done in response to NBA Centel. 

“We heard rumors saying Adam Silver sent the black SUVs,” NBA Central says. “We heard rumors saying Centel was the reason. None of it is true. We just didn’t want to have NBA in our brand name when it was time to expand since that’s a tricky situation with the NBA. We were just being proactive.”

NBA Central isn’t the only news aggregator that has spoof accounts using the same logo and a similar handle. Legion Hoops, an X account that covers NBA news with nearly 820,000 followers, has several pretenders on the platform. 

“At first, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t like it,” Legion Hoops CEO Jacob Ortiz tells FOS. “The idea of someone mimicking my brand and spreading false news, and potentially even news that could be a bad look, concerned me. Occasionally, I’d message the pages to change, and they did. However, as time has passed, I stopped caring, and I just focus on being accurate on my own reporting and aggregation.”

NBA Central is also rolling with it. 

“I don’t think it hurts,” NBA Central says. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You wouldn’t have a troll account if you’re not doing something right.”

NBA Centel says he stopped tagging actual NBA reporters’ X accounts—like ESPN’s Shams Charania and Chris Haynes—and now tags accounts that impersonate those reporters. The exception is Robinson, who says he’s “built a rapport” with Centel. 

“No reporters have ever messaged me privately,” NBA Centel says. “They usually reply back to my tweets or quote it by saying, ‘It’s fake. I didn’t report this.’”

As the NBA regular season is set to tip off Tuesday, Ballsack Sports says the misinformation landscape is the new norm.

“It’s almost amusing at this point to see the same patterns of misinformation play out, and still going strong,” Ballsack says. “For some, it’s like, ‘Really? This is still happening in 2024?’ I think my guy [Kevin Durant] is one of those people. If it’s not happening in basketball Twitter, it’s always happening somewhere else in the social media space. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you may be, I don’t see much changing anytime soon.”

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Premier Lacrosse League

‘The Circus Is Coming to Town’: Why Upstart Leagues Start on Tour

In their ambitious plans, a traveling schedule is only temporary.
exclusive

Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, Rob Dauster to Lead On3’s College Hoops..

Goodman previously worked for ESPN, CBS Sports, and Stadium.

YouTube’s Revised NFL Game Rating Still Has Fox, ESPN Execs Upset 

Adjusted viewership metrics from the streamer reignited debate about the game.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 19: A detailed view of the MLB Debut patch on the jersey of Patrick Monteverde #44 of the Miami Marlins prior to game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Tiny Jersey Patch at the Center of the MLB Rookie Card..

Autographed cards containing a piece of baseball history have upended the market.

Featured Today

Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl Rematch Could Set More NFL Ratings Records

Fox will nationally televise Sunday afternoon’s matchup.
September 10, 2025

ESPN’s ‘MNF’ Ratings Up 8% As NFL Surges to Strong Start

ESPN posts its second-best Week 1 “Monday Night Football” audience.
Sep 7, 2025; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Buffalo Bills fans react during the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium.
September 9, 2025

As Bills Ascend, Their Next Frontier Lies in Canada

Buffalo and the powerful Canadian entity MLSE come together in a new pact.
opinion
September 9, 2025

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from NFL’s Week 1 Broadcasts

Many viewers decried the addition of ads to “NFL RedZone.”
Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker Arvell Reese (8) pursues Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) during the NCAA football game at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025.

College Football Enters Week 3 Up 21% in TV Ratings

Total college football viewership across all networks is up big.
September 5, 2025

NFL’s Expected Early-Season Ratings Boost Gets Off to a Stormy Start

The kickoff game somewhat resembles the delays last year in an SNF game.
Sep 6, 2025; Boulder, Colorado, USA; General view of a Fox Sports camera station before the game between the Delaware Fightin Blue Hens against the Colorado Buffaloes at Folsom Field.
September 11, 2025

Lachlan Murdoch on Fox’s Sports Strategy, FanDuel Plans

The executive calls a forthcoming streaming bundle with ESPN “essential” for fans.
Sponsored

How World Series Champ Dexter Fowler Became a Premier League Team Owner

Dexter Fowler discusses navigating retirement and embracing new roles as an owner & investor.
September 4, 2025

TNT Sports to Try Its Own Streaming App After WBD Split

TNT Sports will have its own app as a corporate split approaches.
Eagles
September 4, 2025

The Death of Streameast Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Mirror sites began popping up Thursday, the day the NFL season begins.
September 4, 2025

3 ABC Games Top 10M Viewers Each in ESPN’s Record CFB Weekend

Miami–Notre Dame led the way with 10.8 million viewers.
September 4, 2025

Bill Belichick’s UNC Debut Draws More Than 6M Viewers on ESPN

TCU-UNC was the fifth-most-watched college football game of Week 1.