ESPN Apologizes For Running Fake Ja Morant Quote About Michael Jordan
By Liam McKeone
On Monday, ESPN ran a segment of This Just In with David Jacoby and Kendrick Perkins about Ja Morant. Specifically, they broke down a quote that went viral from Morant's interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report, when Morant said he'd cook Michael Jordan 1-on-1. However, ESPN went further and used a fake Morant quote about how Jordan is just like other superstars that appears to have originated from (who else) Ballsack Sports.
i know ESPN did not just do an entire segment based on a ja morant “quote” from ballsack sports 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/UqihKpMddW
— Molly Morrison (@mollyhannahm) July 11, 2022
Here is the full video of the @BallsackSports masterclass pic.twitter.com/wXMWmqTiss
— Buttcrack Sports ® (@ButtCrackSports) July 11, 2022
Rooks caught wind pretty quickly and tweeted that ESPN needs to fix the problem, which Jacoby responded to via his own Twitter account with his own apology.
As the face of this I want to do three things:
— Jacoby (@djacoby) July 11, 2022
1) apologize in general
2) apologize to @TaylorRooks and @JaMorant
3) Give a big shout to “Matty Ice” for watching from a what looks like a liquor store https://t.co/A0GrBV9KgV
On Tuesday, Jacoby went on-air for another edition of This Just In and issued a public apology on behalf of the network to the viewers, Rooks, Morant, and Bleacher Report for running the fake quote.
ESPN's David Jacoby apologized for this fake quote on today's edition of "This Just In." pic.twitter.com/OJ3V8LWmve
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2022
Pretty much all they can do at this point. But the fact that this is the second time this has happened suggests something needs to change in the fact-checking process. Fool me once...