The fake news story about an NBA superstar that made Twitter feel every emotion
It's OK, everybody: Kawhi Leonard has apparently not cut his braids.
And thus, a legion of fans exhales after a brief moment of questioning everything it thought it knew about the NBA and the universe.
Leonard is an NBA superstar for the San Antonio Spurs. His quiet, humble demeanor and his braids have been trademarks since before he entered the league in 2011. So when a photo emerged Tuesday night of Leonard apparently sporting a closely cropped hairdo, NBA fans kind of freaked out.
After all, this was the perfect morsel of quasi-important news for the NBA off-season, when nothing's really out of bounds.
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People couldn't believe it.
The story got picked up by national media.
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The Root even weighed in that it looked like Leonard "cut his braids off with a rusty spoon."
Ouch!
But ...
On Wednesday morning, Jabari Young, who covers the Spurs for the San Antonio Express-News, debunked the story.
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So what gives? Photoshop job? Filters creating an optical illusion? This world holds many mysteries, but we trust Young's reporting here and will consider the case closed.
Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
