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Contrary to R&B Singer and Actor Tyrese’s Instagram, Allen Iverson is Not Becoming a Sixers Owner
By Matt Schultz
Published:
This is a strange story. There are a few parts of it I don’t really get. But we can unpack that a little later. Let me get you all caught up here first. Starting at the start, here’s the tweet I saw:
This tweet has over four thousand likes, which, to me, signaled a level of legitimacy. After reading it, I thought to myself, “Well, that’s a nice thing. Allen Iverson deserves a nice thing like that. I love AI. I kind of figured he’d have some official role with the team by now, so it’s good that he finally has one. Part-owner seems strange, though. NBA teams are insanely expensive right now. I didn’t know AI had that kind of money…
…Actually, yeah, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have that kind of money. Think there’s no way he could afford this… Unless Josh Harris just like, gave him a chunk of the team? As like a gift? A legend gift, for being a legend? But that doesn’t sound right either… Rich people don’t usually give stuff away for free, even to someone as sick as Allen Iverson… Maybe this post is off-base…
…Also, I’m realizing now, this is not Tyrese Maxey posting about it – this is someone just named ‘Tyrese’… Who the hell is ‘Tyrese’ with no last name? Let me Google this…”
Then I thought, “Wow, this guy is very famous. Looks like he’s followed by Mark Wahlberg and Paul George. Maybe it’s weird I didn’t know who he was… Let me check if this guy really posted this, or if maybe it was fake and someone photoshopped it for some reason…”
“Okay, yes, it’s here, Tyrese really put this up… Looks like The Professor liked it… But why would Tyrese have this scoop? I’m Googling ‘Allen Iverson owner’ and am not seeing anything else about it… Is this story fake? Did Tyrese get hacked? He posted this 16 hours ago, and in the time since has put up a pretty regular-seeming Story, which makes me think he did not get hacked…”
“If he didn’t get hacked, then why would Tyrese post it? Are he and AI very good friends or something? Maybe Tyrese was so excited for his buddy AI that he heard the news and quickly threw it up on IG without Googling it to confirm it’s true?…
…Also, what is ‘Box Score?’ The graphic that Tyrese put on his grid has ‘Box Score’ watermarked in the corner. What is that? Does Tyrese write for a blog called ‘Box Score?’ Did Tyrese make this graphic for ‘Box Score?’
Then I searched ‘Allen Iverson Sixers owner Tyrese’ on Twitter and found this:
Ultimately, Ben Horney (???) discovered this is “fake news,” and that Allen Iverson is not, in fact, a new owner of the Sixers. And while I guess that’s technically the end of the story, I still feel like we have a lot of questions left unanswered. Why would Tyrese put this up? Why hasn’t he deleted it yet if the news is out that it’s fake? Is Allen Iverson going to make a statement on all of this? Should he? Has he heard about what Tyrese is saying about him? Why is this Tyrese’s picture on Instagram?
Sadly, we may never know the answers to these questions. But at least we know there’s still one Tyrese out there we can trust with this sort of stuff:
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com