PHOENIX SUNS

Kevin Durant, Merriam-Webster Dictionary team up to define a word

Oct 14, 2024, 9:10 PM

Kevin Durant and Merriam-Webster react to NBA Centel reactions (Screenshot)...

Kevin Durant and Merriam-Webster react to NBA Centel reactions (Screenshot)

(Screenshot)

Misinformation thrives on the web, and some fun-loving NBA fans take that to silly levels.

For example: NBA Centel on X has taken a life of its own. Its schtick is to appear like NBA Central, a volume aggregator that prioritizes speed and headline virality over context, accuracy and facts.

NBA Centel posts made-up quotes and stats to garner reaction to its self-created false information. The ideas are usually berthed from the NBA narrative machine.

On Monday, it attributed a quote to Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant explaining why he is apparently single:

“Still rolling solo because I’m 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,” it read, quoting Durant.

It was to nobody’s surprise that the haters took the quote as fact and ran with what they thought was an opportunity to criticize Durant.

To which Durant replied: “You got centel’d…”

It is here where the internet got even weirder. Because replying to Durant’s tweet was the official X account of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and its million followers.

“centel’d | verb | see above,” Merriam-Webster wrote.

Durant at least seems to find joy in the scary world of replies to the NBA Centel account.

It’s good to laugh at people taking made-up quotes as truth. At least when it comes to basketball, a matter he takes pretty seriously.

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Kevin Durant, Merriam-Webster Dictionary team up to define a word