Always liked bulldog Jim Gray. He forever pissed off baseball fans by grilling Chad Curtis about Pete Rose moments after the Yankees outfielder clubbed a walk-off homer in the World Series. And NBA fans incessantly clown Gray; he’s widely known as the permanent holder of Kobe Bryant’s jockstrap.

Whatever your thoughts on the little bugger, surely you feel a smidge sorry for the fact he was duped on National TV by an Allen Iverson impersonator last week:

News of Iverson’s trade demand had broken that day, and Gray, who was the sideline reporter that night for the game between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets, broke in to say he just talked to Iverson. Gray said Iverson told him that he hoped that a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves would work out.

It appeared to be a great scoop since nobody else had talked to Iverson. And as Gray found out later, neither had he.

Later during the Sixers game, Gray went on the air to say that Iverson’s agent Leon Rose called to inform him that the reporter never spoke to Iverson. Gray said on the air that he had talked to an impostor.

We found it comical that Gray would have, while talking to Iverson, simply asked and received the superstar’s digits weeks earlier. Clearly, facts are being omitted here. But perhaps ESPN, instead of soiling their pants over a supposed ‘exclusive,’ could have waited 15 more minutes for Iverson’s agent to confirm Gray had indeed spoken to Iverson. See, that’s one of the problems with the net and breaking news. ESPN, perhaps panicked that Sports Illustrated or NBA Fanhouse or True Hoop or David Aldridge might swoop in and claim the first interview, rushed the news onto the air. This despite the fact it was Friday night, when most people are out to dinner and a movie, lazily watching TV, or covering an NBA game. Time wasn’t of the essence. The crisis could have easily been averted.

ESPN Scoop on Iverson Proves Bogus (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Just thought about it: Could this be why on Wednesday, hours after SI had reported Matsuzaka was signed by the Red Sox, ESPN was still challenging the claim, and refusing to report it? ESPN didn’t report it was a done deal until the early evening, by which point everyone was already Gyro’d out.