SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga is officially listed as 6-foot-7 by the NBA. However, within the last few days, a false Twitter rumor has been circulating that Kuminga has grown to be at least 7 feet tall.
ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins fell for the viral joke.
“From reports, I’m hearing that Jonathan Kuminga is now 7-(foot)-2. The kid has gotten better every single season,” the former Boston Celtics center said during a Tuesday segment on SportsCenter.
Perkins tweeted a response to one tweet poking fun at the former NBA player for falling for the false rumor Kuminga grew seven inches since the Warriors’ season ended last month. “I hate this damn app (laugh emojis),” Perkins wrote on Twitter.
Even longtime Warrior Andre Iguodala joined in on the fun, joking on Twitter that he can confirm the 20-year-old’s massive and sudden growth spurt.
“I just saw JK. He 7’2,” Iguodala tweeted. The tweet has gone viral and now has over 7 million views.
A question was asked in the replies to Iguodala’s tweet for Associate Professor of UCSF Orthopedic Surgery Dr. Nirva Pandya. Pandya said Kuminga’s rumored growth spurt is “possible” but less common.
“It is totally possible that an athlete can have a late growth “spurt,” Pandya said on Twitter. “Physiologically, some individuals may have their growth “plates” (called the physes) close at a later age. Although less common, this is possible.”‘
This isn’t the first time within the past year that ESPN infamously went viral for running with a fake quote on the Internet. The network ran a segment based on a fake quote from a sports parody Twitter account that had Grizzlies star Ja Morant saying Michael Jordan would be “just another superstar” in today’s NBA.
ESPN issued an apology for the false reporting during its daytime show “This Just In.”
