In a media landscape where fake NBA headlines can travel almost as fast as real ones, Taylor Rooks and the NBA on Prime crew leaned into the joke. In a segment, Rooks had a challenge for Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki and Udonis Haslem: figure out whether various posts came from NBA Central or the parody account NBA Centel.
The premise works because the line between the two has become part of NBA internet culture. NBA Central has grown into one of the most recognizable aggregation accounts in basketball media, while NBA Centel built its following by mimicking that look and style closely enough to fool fans, media members and even players. The parody account has become so well known for it that “you got centel’d” is now basically its own basketball-internet phrase.
Here’s one way to celebrate International Fact-Checking Day 😂
The crew had to guess if these posts were shared by NBA Central or NBA Centel 👀 pic.twitter.com/qa4hSbOIDs
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) April 3, 2026
It also says something about the modern NBA conversation. The league no longer lives only in games, press conferences and highlights. It lives in screenshots, reposts, parody accounts and instant reactions. A segment like this works because it understands that reality instead of pretending the online side of the sport is separate from the real thing. For a few minutes, Rooks and the crew were not just discussing basketball. They were playing inside the ecosystem that now surrounds it.
It was funny, yes, but it was also familiar. In today’s NBA, reading the game sometimes means reading the internet too. And sometimes, that means trying to spot the difference between Central and Centel before the rest of the timeline catches up.
