Adrian Wojnarowski has become the NBA's equivalent to DJ Clue. Somehow he gets his hands on exclusive information and delivers it to the public through his welcomed "Woj Bombs." Because of his popularity, multiple accounts have been created to mimic Woj's reporting with ridiculous trolls. For avid NBA fans, it's easy to decipher the imposters from the real Bomb Squad. But this proved to be difficult for Skip Bayless, after the seasoned sports reporter cited an outlandish troll on national television.
On Wednesday's episode of Undisputed, Skip and Shannon Sharpe were discussing the root of the tensions between Rockets stars James Harden and Chris Paul. In doing so, Bayless fell into a trap set by parody sports reporter Barry McCockiner.
McCockiner joke-tweeted that Paul verbally harassed Harden about his "man boobs" to the point that Harden was reduced to tears and had to leave practice. If the show's researchers would have looked at Barry's bio, they would know he self-identifies as a "parody" account, but instead they allowed Bayless to spew this troll as fact.
Barry gained fame by pretending to be Woj and breaking randomly hilarious stories in the past. He revived this persona when tweeting his Paul "man boobs" story. While it's clear that "@SportsTalkBarry" is not the same handle as "@WojESPN," Skip might find solace in knowing he wasn't the only credible reporter to be duped by Barry's online antics.
