During the NBA Draft on Thursday, Golden State Warriors sideline reporter Ric Bucher broke what appeared to be major news.
Bucher was told by a source that the Toronto Raptors would look to do a sign-and-trade agreement involving Kyle Lowry to the Miami Heat. Here are the original tweets:
Source: Toronto looking to S&T Kyle Lowry to Miami for cash and future picks. Part II: Bosh opts out, returns to Toronto.
— Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) June 27, 2014
Now hearing that Norris Cole would also be part of the Lowry-to-Miami deal.
— Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) June 27, 2014
Some were surprised and excited. Others were skeptical, primarily because it didn’t come from the usual news-breakers like Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports or Marc Stein of ESPN. The reports were also unconfirmed by anyone else, so many took a wait-and-see approach. On Friday, Masai Ujiri put all speculations to rest on Toronto radio by stating he never even considered the idea of moving Lowry in a sign-and-trade to any team, according to Tim Reynolds of The A.P.:
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri told Toronto radio today that he has “never thought or discussed” a sign-&-trade involving Kyle Lowry with any team. — Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) June 27, 2014
Reynolds went further to disprove Bucher’s report with this tweet:
Source: Norris Cole has not been shopped to anyone. Enjoy your Friday night, everyone. The circus will have five shows daily until July 10.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) June 27, 2014
Raptors’ beat writer Doug Smith also chimed in on the matter, presumably after checking with reliable sources of his own:
There have been “zero” conversations between Raptors and Heat; please take a breath and enjoy the long weekend
— Doug Smith: Raptors (@SmithRaps) June 27, 2014
With Bucher’s report proven to be nothing short of a hoax by his source, he addressed what happened thoroughly on twitter:
My deepest and sincere apologies. My report on Lowry and a S&T between the Raptors-Heat is wrong. I should’ve known better. I could not… — Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) June 27, 2014
…be more embarrassed. I can’t explain why someone would go the lengths “my source” did to set me up, but that’s irrelevant. I allowed… — Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) June 28, 2014
my zeal to break a story take too much for granted. I’d like to think I’m better than that. Yesterday and today I was not. — Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) June 28, 2014
Some were sympathetic towards him for having to deal with a pretty tough mistake:
I heard some (potentially) well-sourced things about the Heat a couple days ago I chose not to share. Breaking news is a very tricky biz. — Brett Pollakoff (@BrettEP) June 28, 2014
Looking at the favorites and RTs further proves that few care when you report something right but get something wrong and EVERYONE cares. — Tommy Dee (@_TommyDee_) June 28, 2014
@RicBucher hang in there, Ric. Tough world we swim in these days. — Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 28, 2014
Legitimate kudos to @RicBucher for the serious apology. — Tom Ziller (@teamziller) June 28, 2014
Others weren’t as friendly, including the Miami Heat supporter Dan Le Batard:
Hahaha RT RicBucher: Source: Toronto looking to S&T Kyle Lowry to Miami for cash/future picks. Part II: Bosh opts out, returns to Toronto.” — Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 27, 2014
Hohoho RT @RicBucher: Source: Toronto looking to S&T Kyle Lowry to Miami for cash/future picks. Part II: Bosh opts out, returns to Toronto.”
— Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 27, 2014
Hehehehe RT @NBAFLASHNEWS: The Toronto Raptors have agreed to sign-and-trade Kyle Lowry to the Miami Heat. (Via Ric Bucher)” — Dan Le Batard Show (@LeBatardShow) June 27, 2014
Unfortunately for Heat fans, they will have to continue sweating out their team’s current situation with LeBron James free to do anything he wants this summer.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
Reminds me of when Brian Windhorst was in Cleveland, his source had told him there was no escalator clause in James’ Nike contract if James went to play for another team. Windhorst parroted that source in his stories for several years. It turned out the source had lied to Windhorst, and Windhorst wrote a mea culpa very similar to Bucher’s.