A Post On NBA Reddit Set The Internet Ablaze By Suggesting The Grizzlies' Scorekeeper Was Inflating Jaren Jackson Jr's Defensive Stats To Help Him Win Defensive Player Of The Year

Justin Ford. Getty Images.

The beauty of the internet is you never really know what it's going to deliver on any given day good. Every time you wake up in the morning, everything and anything is on the table. 

Today, we were blessed with a good ol' fashioned basketball conspiracy, and boy did it not disappoint.

It began as almost everything does, with an indepth (and i mean indepth) Reddit post. This person with all kinds of time on their hands seemed to suggest that something fishy was going on with the Memphis Grizzlies and the defensive stats being awarded to Jaren Jackson Jr during Grizzlies home games.

If you go in and read the entire post, it sounds pretty crazy. You sort of have to put away the idea that guys may play better or harder at home, but the raw data does make you scratch your head. As this post went more viral we learned that this is the only post this Reddit account has made, and given that it was posted at like 4am is certainly suspect, but when you get a potential juicy scandal like this I'm not sure there's a single person out there who cares about the facts or details. As far as the internet was concerned, Jaren Jackson Jr's (the DPOY leader at the moment) numbers were cooked. 

As more and more people woke up and opened their phone to see this viral post, NBA Twitter did what they do best. They blew it up even more, to the point where the NBA not only had to look into it, they commented on it

Listen nobody loves a basketball conspiracy more than me, but this one was tough to believe. Even though getting some home cooking by the home scorekeeper is nothing new (see: John Stockton, Chris Paul etc), that really hasn't been an issue in recent years. Plus with all the sports betting involvement in 2023, you have to imagine the league reviews every single stat. It's a great theory that can lead you down a bunch of different roads, but in the end it all looked like a bunch to do about nothing. More and more respected basketball writers decided to pull the tape and sadly the point that Reddit post was trying to make just didn't hold any weight

RIP Jaren Jackson DPOY Conspiracy (January 28th 2023 - January 28th 2023).

As much as I may have wanted it to be true, the proof is in the pudding. JJJ's defensive impact is actually just that good and worthy of being in the DPOY conversation. But then it got me thinking, that post was so random, there has to be more to it.

Is it possible one of the other candidates had someone in their camp post that shit as a way to sabotage JJJ's DPOY case? Could that have been someone from the Claxton/Lopez camp? That could make sense, but I don't think so. It's too easy to prove that what he's doing on the floor is being scored correctly. 

Then I started to wonder, could this have been a leak from JJJ's camp? Why would they do that? Easy. Narrative. Everyone and I mean everyone in basketball circles was talking about JJJ today. They watched all his highlights and helped remind the internet that this dude is an absolute monster on the defensive end. If anything, this "scandal" seemed to help strengthen JJJ's case. He's the one that benefits most from something like this going viral, and we know how much narrative helps a player win DPOY. 

How can I prove that? Pretty easily. When you have a strong case in terms of defensive metrics AND have the narrative, this is what happens

I know Reddit, and especially NBA Reddit, can be a weird place at times, but I find it highly unlikely that there was just some random person who was putting forth what I'm sure were hours and hours of research and effort to make one random NBA Reddit post about Jaren Jackson Jr of all people. We're at the point where you have to start thinking next level when it comes to these awards given what is tied to them financially. 

Maybe it was just someone who was trying to impact the betting market. I suppose you can't rule that out either in today's world. That's what makes this whole thing so fun. While the actual point they were trying to make was bullshit, maybe that was the point. For all we know, maybe there will be that sliver of doubt for the DPOY voters in a few months as a result of this, even if the actual data and footage prove to be legit.

A true THIS LEAGUE moment that was a whole lot of fun to be on the internet for on Saturday morning, but now I'm addicted. I need more conspiracies. I need more random Reddit posts from throwaway accounts. With the trade deadline about to be here, let's get nuts.