Elon's New Twitter Is Off And Running With Our First Verified Fake LeBron James Trade Request Tweet

Garrett Ellwood. Getty Images.

I think we're all collectively sitting and waiting to see what happens with Elon's new Twitter. Some people take things way too far and try and talk like they're going to delete the app, others don't really give a shit about any of it, and some are in the middle. 

But now that you can start buying your checkmark, you knew what was going to come next, especially in the sports world. Think of when we get to free agency/trade deadline in the NBA for example. The #1 rule you needed to live by was read every tweet twice. Fake Shams and Woj accounts pop up left and right and if you scroll too quit and RT or quote RT without making sure, you can get burned. It's happened to me, it's happened to you, it's part of the game.

Well we can now add shit like this to the list

If you now search for that tweet the account has been suspended, so basically that person wasted money for like 15 seconds of Twitter clout. That's very weird behavior if you ask me but not at all surprising. I think this shows the first issue we're going to have to adjust to when it comes to this stuff when it comes to sports news/athletes/etc.

Chances are people don't know that technically LeBron cannot be traded this season. He has to wait until after the year before he even tries to request a trade even though the Lakers might once again be terrible. People see the name/avatar/check mark and assume it's real, even if only for a moment. I know Twitter added that "Official" thing you may be seeing on some accounts already, but that's not going to do shit in terms of tweets like the one above being shared/RTd/etc. 

I am more than willing to admit I am in no way smart enough to figure any of this shit out. I certainly don't have any answers nor do I claim to. This is more just a public service announcement to you all as you spend your days on your timeline. Be careful. Nothing worse than getting burned by a fake Twitter account, and for the moment it seems like there are going to be a ton of them floating around that look damn convincing.

This is especially true if you end up seeing one that relates to your favorite team. Take the extra second and read it twice/click the profile. It's tough out there now on these internet streets.