There has to be a silver lining from the cruel April Fool’s Twitter joke played by former UVA backup Teven Jones and his former roommate, Justin Anderson.
Justin, if you’re reading, there’s no way you can do this to UVA Nation twice.
Happy for my bro @JusAnderson1 on his decision to Enter the draft. Freshmen year seems like yesterday. Good luck bro! pic.twitter.com/LZA7iVfHvQ
— Teven Jones (@TSU_Tev55) April 2, 2015
What was intended as an April Fool’s joke blew up quickly, and saying quickly is understating things quite a bit.
Within minutes, the news was all over the Internet, with reporters putting up breaking-news bits announcing the news that Anderson was headed toward the NBA Draft.
That Anderson himself was among the retweets was what helped fuel the hysteria.
Jones, a Fishburne Military School postgrad alum, noted in a later tweet that the original hadn’t been up for more than 20 seconds before his phone started blowing up with notifications.
The pair eventually called off the dogs, eventually being within six minutes, but the damage was done.
Actually, the damage was only several dozen near-heart attacks. There are no reports of any actual deaths or injuries.
The blowup shows how tightly would the fanbase is these days, with Anderson’s status up in the air, reports that Texas tried to reach out to Tony Bennett about its open head coach job, top assistant Ritchie McKay leaving seemingly suddenly for Liberty.
Good on you, Tev, for pulling one of the better April Fool’s pranks in recent memory.
But please, never again.
– Story by Chris Graham