Basketball fans around the world were left in shock when French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama called out FIBA, the international governing body of basketball, over a “fake interview.”
The athlete, who has been making waves in the basketball world with his impressive performances, took to social media to express his disappointment with FIBA for falsely attributing quotes to him in an interview.
On February 18, FIBA published an interview with Wembanyama, where he discussed his plans to play for the French national team and the significance of the upcoming European qualifiers for the FIBA World Cup.
According to Wembanyama himself, the story in question is reportedly false, and he NEVER participated in the interview that was published.
He took to Instagram to call out FIBA for not verifying the legitimacy of the story before making it public, expressing his disbelief that it was published without proper fact-checking.
“4 days ago FIBA published a fake interview of me,” he wrote on Instagram. “Wtf???”
Victor Wembanyama claims, through his personal Instagram account, that FIBA published a fake interview of him a few days ago. And that’s the most bizarre thing I’ve seen in a while🤷🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/BdS9jmnVnd
— vasiliki_karamouza (@karamouza_vas) February 22, 2023
Following Victor Wembanyama’s call-out, FIBA issued an apology to the young athlete and promptly removed the article in question.
— FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 🏆 (@FIBAWC) February 22, 2023
The governing body for international basketball explained that it was unable to verify the authenticity of the interview, which was provided by a long-time French contributor.
FIBA gave a statement, “An article featuring a supposed interview with Victor Wembanyama was recently published on the FIBA website. After doubts were expressed by the player regarding the interview, which was provided to FIBA by a long-time French contributor, the veracity of the interview could not be confirmed.”
“FIBA has without delay removed the article and all related social media posts, and has immediately terminated the relationship with the freelance reporter. FIBA apologizes to Victor and the French team and wishes them all the best in the forthcoming #FIBAWC qualifiers.”
This incident involving Wembanyama and FIBA highlights the need for sports organizations to ensure the proper broadcasting of legitimate news, especially if it is coming from the top sources of sporting associations.
If such happenings are repeated in the future, it sure will raise massive concerns regarding the integrity and authenticity of FIBA as a whole. What are your thoughts on the unsettling incident as a spectator? Do share with us in the comments – we love hearing from you.
