NBA Centel Parody Account Suspended On X, Social Media Crashes Out

Source: Nic Antaya / Getty

We can all agree that fake news is bad, right?

But sometimes, it hits a bit differently, thanks to the flood of parody accounts on social media that make your timeline even more chaotic.

And now, it appears that we may have lost the one X account that every basketball fan can say they’ve been fooled by: NBA Centel, a play on the legit account NBA Central, which boasts nearly 1.8 million followers.

Compared, NBACentel’s got 360,000 followers, but it’s enough to dupe enough folks that “being canceled” has become its own term to those knee-deep in NBA Twitter lore.

Whether it be false trades or made-up quotes, Centel leaned into the misinformation that made followers double-check to make sure it wasn’t legit. And somehow Centel and other parody accounts, like ‘Pop Crave’ impersonator ‘Poo Crave,’ dodge Community Notes.

One of its most outrageous tweets in the past year came this past September when Diddy was arrested on sex trafficking charges, and Centel leaned into the running joke of LeBron James’ future predictions always coming true. “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,” the tweet read.

But as the race to the playoffs heat up, Luka Doncic’s Laker era, and Jimmy Butler’s messy divorce with the Miami Heat, the account was suddenly gone Wednesday afternoon.

“TheNBACentel hasn’t posted; when they do, their posts will show up here,” read the account’s page.

Now that the account is gone, everyone is upset, including NBA teams like the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and Miami Heat. Even NBA 2K’s official account has been tweeting about the fallen account.

Actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. poured one out, too.

“Today we lost a generational talent. The word GOAT is thrown around so much nowadays that it loses its significance,” Jackson Jr. said. “Without a shadow of a doubt, Centel you were the GOAT,” his tweet read. “Hail fellow well met. Goodnight sweet prince. A first ballot Twitter hall of famer.”

After agreeing to anonymity, last year the founder spoke to Front Office Sports about the phenomena and how the OG parody account Ballsack Sports played a part.

“Ballsack Sports inspired me and many other troll accounts on this platform,” the faceless Toronto resident said. “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.”

There’s no telling if the account will eventually be reinstated, but see how social media is missing the giant hole in their timelines below.

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