Jason Dumas is the San Francisco TV guy who occasionally reports on Philadelphia sports news. His Twitter profile identifies him as a “Philly Bul” even though he is actually from Haverford and went to Malvern Prep.

Anyway, we’ve shared some of his stuff on CB, stuff that is generally pretty sloppy. It seems like he gets some decent tidbits here and there from sources, but overall it’s inconsistent and incomplete and the finer details are glossed over.

When the Harden trade went down today, he went through his mentions and dunked on some people who were critical of him, including Crossing Broad:

https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/status/1491848782878633984?s=20&t=weUP2tYAL54f4n3d0J1O1g

First things first, a Sixers executive once told me that they “laugh at everything Jason Dumas tweets.” So regardless of what you think about Crossing Broad, the people who actually do know what’s going with the Sixers think Dumas is full of crap.

For some context here, this was the last thing Dumas tweeted before Woj and Shams broke the Harden trade on Thursday afternoon:

Okay, so it seems like he’s on to something here, but nothing in that is unique to Dumas. Other blue checkmarks reported that talks were ongoing. Seth Curry’s name was mentioned by several reporters. The packages that Dumas is talking about contain names of players that were moved, but Mills, Brown, and Thybulle stayed put while draft picks were exchanged instead. This is where it gets tricky, because unless you’re Woj or Shams and get the final details of the trade correct, blue checkmarks can always say “well at one point player X and player Y were definitely on the table.” That may or may not be true, but it’s not able to be proved unless Daryl Morey or Sean Marks comes out and says “yes, Dumas is right, that was the package we talked about.”

Dumas also tweeted this:

Again, some of the framework of the final deal is in here, though others reported well before Dumas that Maxey was off limits. And Mills didn’t move. Thybulle didn’t move. It was reported by others, like Keith Pompey, that Thybulle’s inclusion was the hold up, but if you’re Dumas, you can’t take a victory lap and dunk on people unless you’re the guy breaking the actual news and putting the final details out there. Whatever he had amounted to bits and pieces, just like every other non-Woj blue checkmark out there.

For Dumas to take the leap he wants and get the respect he deserves, he needs to actually break a story and claim it as his own. Plenty of people get portions of stories here and there, and float those out on the internet. But you only cement your credibility in absoluteness. That’s why Woj and Shams are what they are, because they don’t just share details of what’s going on behind the scenes; they are able to bring their reporting to a finite conclusion and finish the job, which confirms their previous reporting in a denouement of sorts.

Anyway, the reason we don’t trust Dumas is because of spotty past work, and I’ll give you three examples.

Example 1:

Not true. Embiid was not “mum” during Ben’s hold out. He literally went on Mike Missanelli’s show a few days ago. And during the first week of practice Embiid said “I don’t care about that man,” in regard to Simmons. Yes, Embiid has said some positive things about Ben, like when he asked fans at the home opener to support him, but he has dropped plenty of shade as well and there has been no consistent pattern here. If Embiid was playing it like Dumas suggests, Joel would have said nothing at all.

Example 2:

Here, Dumas walked back his own report, which was fishy from the start.

Klutch never wanted Tyrese Maxey out of Philadelphia because Klutch actually benefits from KEEPING Maxey in Philadelphia. When he gets paid, they get paid, and Ben clearing the way allowed Maxey increased minutes, which eventually turned him into a budding star. Klutch already made their Philly money off Ben and they are now in a position to earn off a second local client.

Example 3:

The thing here is that fans can’t even access the practice facility. It is gated and closed off to the general public, and the players park in the central area, which is then surrounded by buildings. So Ben simply would have driven by fans, observed by security, and up to the gate, then gone and parked about 100 yards away.

The “organized groups” thing had to discarded immediately because it was not logistically possible in the first place. If Dumas was familiar with the layout in Camden, he would have been keen on not reporting that, and told his source as much. But he reported it and hurt his credibility in the process.

Honestly, it’s not personal. It’s really not. We just call out fraudulent behavior where we see it. If you want credibility and respect, you have to break stories. You can’t just offer tidbits on Twitter and then go back and see “see! I was on it the entire time.” Anybody can cobble stuff together and claim they had an inside track, but that’s not what gets you to Woj or Shams level. You gotta finish the job, or else you’re just a middle man for proxies and agents and all of the other bad-faith actors comprising the cesspool of NBA rumor Twitter.