A flawed report sparks confusion among Gator fans over an NBA player

We here at Hail Florida Hail try not to engage in media wars because we believe everyone within the Gator ecosystem has a role to play. We act as a commentary arm while many others act as the reporting arm of the Gators. 

But sometimes national media personalities chime in on Florida and, as was the case on Saturday night, do so so poorly that everyone looks around, going “Huh?”

Florida is not pursuing an NBA player

On Saturday, Joe Tipton of On3 dropped a report and graphic that indicated that Trentyn Flowers was going to explore a move to play college basketball. The controversy that erupted is that Flowers has played in literal NBA games and is currently on a two-way contract with the Chicago Bulls.

Tipton’s report and accompanying graphic indicated a plethora of schools had expressed interest in Flowers, including the Gators, who were front and center in his graphic. We noted Tipton’s report on Sunday morning, but it turned out there was one teeny tiny problem that we noted in a later update:

Florida had never expressed interest in Flowers.

And Florida wasn’t alone, as multiple schools were included in the report that came out on Sunday and said, “Um, no, no were aren’t.”

The report ended up being so flimsy that even Shannon Terry, the CEO of On3, tweeted an apology on Sunday night, saying they would “introduce additional training measures” to ensure a report like that didn’t happen again.

But this isn’t the first time the Gators have been roped into a graphic for engagement bait, and we have a sneaking suspicion this will be far from the last time. On3 is notorious for announcing football commitments that a player chose their school “over Florida,” even though the Gators had long been out of the picture.

So no, the Gators are not going after a player who litteraly played in the NBA this season.

At least some things are still normal in college basketball.