Let’s be honest. Sometimes reporters get things wrong, and that was surely the case when 92.9 FM ESPN radio host Jason Smith said on-air that musical artists Drake and Justin Timberlake would be among the special guests at Memphis Madness. Afterwards, his co-host John Martin tweeted the information, and it was shared all over social media.
To Smith’s credit, he was accurate when he said Memphis natives Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo and BlocBoy JB would be in attendance. The issue was not so much that he made a mistake, but more so how the University of Memphis profited off rumors disseminated by Smith.
“I was really trying to get Justin (Timberlake), of course, he’s busy,” head coach Penny Hardaway said after Memphis Madness concluded. “We really never tried to get Drake. So when that came out, I think another couple hundred people were like, ‘I believe it. I think he’s going to be there.’”
Hardaway said he did not want to ruin Memphis Madness for his players, the women’s basketball team or fans wanting to come get a possible glimpse of the two Grammy Award-winning artists. Though he came off as sincere and honest when he said that, his genuineness still does not make up for the fact that the university profited off a false report.
Memphis offered $100 premium seats to fans, and those tickets sold out within 24-hours. In all fairness, it’s not clear if those people only purchased the tickets for the chance of seeing Timberlake and Drake perform at Memphis Madness. Nevertheless, the misinformation given over social media and 92.9 ESPN generated even more hype for an event that was already the talk of the town.
To be blunt, U of M President M. David Rudd and Athletic Director Tom Bowen need to make a statement and clear this situation up. As mentioned before, Memphis never said or confirmed the two artists would be at Memphis Madness. However, they could have prevented people from purchasing tickets solely for the musicians.
“I was disappointed that Drake was a no-show,” Regina Cole, a junior studying Spanish at U of M said. “I was even more disappointed that people guaranteed his presence at Memphis Madness.”
Despite the let-down, Cole said she enjoyed the event and looks forward to coming to the basketball games this season.
The impacts of this misinformation and the lack of responsibility from the U of M could have a ripple effect. Drake and Timberlake’s fan bases in the Mid-South could be puzzled as to why their favorite musicians did not show up.
The U of M must answer questions. It is not the place of a journalist to tell another reporter how he or she should report news. That is above my pay grade. However, 92.9 ESPN is responsible for the dark clouds that hang over what was supposed to be a bright night for Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers basketball team as a whole.
