Twitter chooses Woj over Shams in secret VIP list

By Sean Keane | Last updated 3/28/23

In the eternal battle between NBA newsbreakers, Elon Musk is Team Woj.

The website platformer reported that Twitter has been secretly boosting 35 "VIP" Twitter accounts. Twitter monitors those accounts and "offers increased visibility" alongside Musk's own tweets.

There's two NBA figures on the list: LeBron James, and ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Notably absent is Shams Charania, Woj's rival when it comes to breaking free agency news, spoiling NBA draft picks and disseminating information from agents.

Perhaps Elon Musk is old school when it comes to NBA rumors. Maybe he's nostalgic for 2016, when Wojnarowski was still at Yahoo and Musk wasn't even worth $11 billion. We like to imagine Musk overseeing a SpaceX launch while frantically refreshing Twitter to find out if Dwight Howard was really leaving the Rockets for the Hawks.

It's also interesting that Musk is helping the spread of disinformation on Twitter by promoting the tweets of serial fabricator LeBron James. Over the years, James has shared dubious claims like:

He was listening to Migos a year before they ever released a mixtape.
He was going to do the dunk contest in 2010.
He'd watched "The Godfather" films.
He dreamt about playing an NCAA final against Michael Jordan but woke up before he saw who won.

The other breaking news? Mark Cuban paid for Twitter Blue, the service that's made Twitter only $11 million since its launch.

Just like signing Chandler Parsons, or trading for Kristaps Porzingis and giving him a max extension, or losing $500K on a smartphone breathalyzer, it's another Mark Cuban investment that hasn't paid off. But it's not a surprise that Cuban values the 2,800 characters. It gives him more room to complain about officiating.

If Musk really wants to win Cuban back, he needs to offer him 28,000 characters and special placement in Adam Silver's Twitter feed.

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