Wednesday’s Hot Clicks: SportsCenter Airs Fake LeBron Comment on Anthony Davis’s Instagram

LeBron isn’t actually recruiting Anthony Davis in his Instagram comments.

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBA/Getty Images

LeBron isn’t that brazen

The worst-kept secret in the NBA right now is that Anthony Davis wants to play in Los Angeles with LeBron James and LeBron wants AD to play with him.

ESPN has been all over this story, with Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that Davis’s desire to play in L.A. is so strong that he’ll refuse to sign a contract extension with any other team. LeBron and Davis share an agent (Rich Paul of Klutch Sports), so there’s no doubt LeBron is pulling strings behind the scenes to lure the talented big man.

It’s fun to imagine LeBron also making public overtures, like this one cooked up by a guy named Sreekar on Twitter.

It’s a pretty decent joke, but the producers of the 1 a.m. SportsCenter didn’t think it was funny. They thought it was real and showed the fake comment on the air with anchor Neil Everett saying LeBron was “basically giving the middle finger to the NBA.”

Everyone gets fooled by fakes in this business from time to time, but there are a couple of things that should have signaled to the SportsCenter folks that this is fake. First of all, LeBron doesn’t use 2006-era AIM abbreviations like “ur” and “cya” on social media. More importantly, LeBron is a really smart guy. He’s not dumb enough to risk getting in trouble with the league by making his recruiting efforts public.

I also don’t think commenting on an Instagram post from a week and a half ago is the most efficient way to get in touch with Davis. He’s probably got his number, or at least could get it from his agent. 

Swing and a miss!

Trent Frederic made his NHL debut for the Bruins last night and logged nearly as much time in the penalty box (five minutes) as he did on the ice (8:29). His parents were oddly thrilled to see him drop the gloves, though. They just need to work on their celebrations a bit. 

TMI, Andy

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A post shared by Andy Murray (@andymurray)

Andy Murray announced yesterday that he went under the knife for a long-needed hip operation. He announced the news in what seemed like a fairly innocuous Instagram post. But if you click the little arrow on the right side of the photo and see the second photo Murray included, you might notice the faint outline of something in the X-ray. Yeah... that’s his junk.

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Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.