Fascinating to see the spin work in real time.
The “Sacramento is not Ivey’s Prefered Destination” narrative seems to have stemmed entirely from Johnathan Givony’s ESPN mock draft article on Wednesday, which I can’t read because it’s behind a paywall. But thanks to Twitter it is everywhere and accepted as fact.
Still, I had to wonder just where the hell he got that information, because as far as I can tell, he didn’t cite any sources. Not even the “those close to Ivey and familiar with his thinking” anonymous sources. He just wrote the factoid as if it was self-evident and moved on.
Well, seems his source is a Sports Illustrated article on Tuesday in which Ivey is asked where he would want to be drafted.
It’s important to note, at the start he gave the incredibly stock answer “Whatever team thinks I’m a good fit for them, I’m just going to go with it … I would love to go anywhere.”
Only then does he give the very human answer that his mom played for the Shock, so he’s lived in Detroit, and knows the area well. And he’s an Indiana kid, his mom played for the Fever, so playing for the Pacers would be an honor.
At no point is there any inkling that he would prefer NOT to be drafted by Sacramento. Quite the opposite actually. But that’s not a sexy tweet or tag line, so we warp his answer to a leading question into suggesting he’s angling for specific teams to draft him and it’s not the crappy Kings.
https://thespun.com/.amp/more/inter...den-ivey-nba-draft-teams-hed-like-to-play-for
Damn I’m sick of internet-era journalism. Unfortunately I’m a dinosaur grumbling in the corner that the pace of both news and basketball has gotten way too fast.
That said, if no less than a half dozen teams are clambering for the Kings to mess this up so Ivey falls to them, I’m all for just drafting the kid and giving the league a middle finger.