Alright so this morning I was scrolling through Twitter, you know, just killing time before my coffee kicked in, when I see this crazy tweet – “RIP Michael Jordan” trending. My brain just froze for a second. What? The GOAT? No way. Felt like somebody punched me in the gut. Instantly dropped everything, gotta figure out if this is real.
First thing I did was absolutely panic. I mean, come on, it’s Michael Jordan. My fingers were shaking so bad I almost dropped my phone trying to get to Google. Typed in “Michael Jordan death” and holy crap, the autocomplete filled it in. Heart started pounding even harder. Saw headlines popping up right away saying stuff like “Basketball legend dead at 60.” I swear I felt cold.
My Fact-Checking Frenzy Begins
Right, couldn’t just believe some random search results. Gotta go deeper. Here’s how I tackled it step-by-step:
- Major News Sites: Jumped straight to the big boys – ESPN, CNN, NBC Sports, *. Scrolled like a madman on each homepage and through their “NBA” sections. Nothing. No breaking news banners, no headline stories. Felt a tiny bit better, but still suspicious. Sometimes they’re slow, right?
- Official Sources Check: Went straight to the source. Headed over to the Charlotte Hornets official website (since MJ owns them) and checked their news feed. Dead silent on the topic. Scrolled back days – nothing. Also checked the NBA Twitter account, the Hornets Twitter, even MJ’s own twitter (@Jumpman23). No “RIP MJ” posts, no official statements confirming anything scary. This was a big green flag.
- Dodgy Source Investigation: Went back to see where those scary headlines came from. One looked like a super sketchy “news” site with pop-ups everywhere, another just copied some old article and changed the date. Classic hoax crap. Recognized a few sites known for stirring this kinda junk up. Red alert! False alarm vibes getting stronger.
The Relief (and Annoyance) Sets In
Took me maybe 10 frantic minutes total to piece it together. No credible source confirmed it. Every single major outlet and official channel was completely silent about this “news.” It was clearly just another stupid hoax playing on people’s fears about celebrity deaths.
Man, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Followed immediately by serious irritation. Why do people keep doing this? It’s like a sick game. You get all worked up, worried, heartsick even, and then it’s all for nothing. It’s exhausting dealing with this constant flood of fake news online. You can’t even check the weather without stumbling over some death hoax or conspiracy junk anymore. It makes you not want to even look online some days, you know?
This whole thing today really hammered home how careful you gotta be. Never, ever take a tweet or a random headline at face value. Especially about something this huge. Always gotta dig deeper, find the official sources, the major sites. Don’t let the hoaxers win with your clicks or your tears.
Guess the good news is Michael Jordan is still with us. But man, I need a stronger coffee after that scare. This internet business… it’s something else.