OAKLAND — At some point this past Friday, The Morning Ledger, an obscure website, posted an article titled ‘Boston Celtics trade with Golden State Warriors for Klay Thompson?’ In it, Justin Bautista, the writer, mused about a potential Thompson to Celtics swap for Avery Bradley and Amir Johnson.
There was no inside information. No rumblings from either front office. Nothing of credibility. Just a link to another obscure website, called Sportsrageous, and a bunch of uninformed speculation. Dozens of these pop up each week. They nearly all die without gaining any legitimate traction.
But at some point over the past 72 hours, Brian Scalabrine read it. Then on Monday morning, he went on his Sirius XM radio show and brought it up without revealing exactly where he got the information.
"I heard this weekend that Klay Thompson may be available, I heard that rumor going around involved w/ a team that wears green" @Scalabrine
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) November 14, 2016
Scalabrine is a former player, a Celtics TV analyst and a respected voice within the league, who, you’d expect, talks to plenty of NBA insiders, particularly within the Celtics organization.
So people took it serious. Plus it was spicy. Could there be trouble in paradise? Klay Thompson has had his early-season shooting struggles. Could the Warriors really be shopping him around?
Within minutes, it became a trending topic. Bleacher Report sent out an alert. Warriors fans started freaking out. Bay Area sports talk radio was discussing it incessantly. National shows were dedicating entire segments to it. Hours later, this was the top headline on Twitter’s ‘Moments’ tab: ‘Klay Thompson trade rumors are swirling around the NBA.’
It didn’t matter that Scalabrine had already backtracked. The machine was already pumping.
Btw it's not my rumor or my sources. It's just something I read over the week that I thought was interesting.
— Brian Scalabrine (@Scalabrine) November 14, 2016
Morning Ledger 3 days ago justin bautista. I talk all rumors not just team I know and cover
— Brian Scalabrine (@Scalabrine) November 14, 2016
“Brian hasn’t called me yet,” Steve Kerr joked when asked about it after Monday’s practice. “If Brian wants to call, I’ll get Bob (Myers) on the phone and Bob and I can pick his brain and figure out what we should do.”
It’s no surprise that, once a credible voice put it out there, the rumor gained traction. Sports fans have become enthralled with personnel movement. It’s why free agency and trade deadline nuggets are often followed more obsessively than regular season games.
But human beings are involved. This is Thompson’s (and Bradley’s and Johnson’s) life and career. Family and friends will text and tweet. This news will get back to them. So no matter the credibility, once the rumblings go viral, does Kerr have to have a conversation with Thompson?
“I think our guys know that most of that stuff is almost always just BS,” Kerr said. “If that became a story, I would probably talk to Klay. But I didn’t know it was a story until just now. I’ll go home, get on the Internet and decide whether to call Klay or not. There’s a lot of fake news.”
Steve Kerr on the Klay to Boston rumor: "I think our guys know that stuff is almost always BS" pic.twitter.com/lH8o29RlUo
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 14, 2016
