The sports rumor Web site www.abcSportsRumor12345678910.com has come under fire today after its article "LeBron James secretly signs 14-year, $476.73 million contract with Knicks," which spread around the world after it was picked up by ESPN, was found to be unsubstantiated.
"I was fooled at first," said an anonymous source who said he runs a similar sports rumor site. "But then I saw the original story on Google News. I began to suspect something when the article preview began '120,000 suckers have viewed this page since 12:00 AM EST . . . But we found the story on [link broken]. We didn't make it up, honestly.'"
ESPN, however, defended its actions.
"Our job is to report all sports-related news as soon as it breaks. Look at how many people read our Malik Rose-to-Golden State article! Or our 130th article on Charlie Weis. This week, we speculate that he will, in fact, not receive a nine-year extension, but will instead be fired effective immediately . . . Sorry, we have to cut the interview short. Duke just scored again against Presbyterian. This has to go on the Breaking News ticker."
The revelation casts doubt on previous articles found in the site's archives, including:
- Giants sign every free agent shortstop in MLB.
- Kobe scores 135 points; traded to Clippers for Chris Kaman.
- Notre Dame will join Big Ten in 2064.
- Pete Carroll agrees to coach Lions- if they trade for Adrian Peterson and Tom Brady.
- Bill Belichick has video taken from grassy knoll: dated November, 1963.
- USC signs top overall recruit in 2020 class; Team expected to be 2019 preseason #1.
- President Bush pardons Barry Bonds, just to mess with those activist judges.
- Tim Tebow jumps tall building to save woman who was about to be hit by a car. Or was it Brett Favre?
The author of the original article could not be reached. It is rumored that he is editing his video of Bigfoot beating Devin Harris in a pickup game so that clips can be shown on tonight's SportsCenter's Top 10 plays.
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