Late Friday night, Kawhi Leonard finally provided an answer to the question sports fans had been wondering for months: where would he sign in free agency? Leonard chose the LA Clippers, picking them over the Los Angeles Lakers and a return to the Toronto Raptors. After he proved himself to be capable of leading a team to the championship as the No. 1 option, his free agency became the biggest story in the NBA, topping the free agency decisions of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler. But while most of the top free agents chose their homes early in the process, Leonard’s free agent decision played out over the course of a week, leading to increased anticipation, hunger, and one of the wildest stories since DeAndre Jordan was held hostage in Houston.
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The story begins in mid-June, a few weeks before free agency was set to begin. Adrian Wojnarowski, the most respected and authoritative reporter in the NBA, said on ESPN’s “Get Up” on June 18 that Leonard was focused on the Clippers and would likely be choosing between them and the Raptors. He noted the Lakers had very little chance because Leonard did not want to be the third star behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and also because the Lakers had a difficult salary cap situation at the time. Woj went so far as to say he wasn’t even sure that the Lakers would get a meeting with Leonard.
That report more or less set the tone and expectation for Leonard’s free agency: it would be a two-way race between the Clippers and Raptors. The Lakers were hardly a consideration.
Despite Woj’s report, the narrative surrounding the Lakers’ chances of landing Kawhi Leonard began to twist over the ensuing days as free agency neared. The New York Times’ Marc Stein was at the forefront of the changing narrative, pumping up the Lakers and Leonard. Stein reported on June 25, then June 28, and again on July 2 that the Lakers believed they were heavily in the mix for Leonard and that they would land him.
Stein’s reports were augmented by Stephen A. Smith saying on the June 28 edition of “Get Up” that Kawhi was seriously considering signing with the Lakers. Keep in mind that Smith is so close with Magic Johnson that the former Lakers president joined Smith’s show after resigning from his position. Also keep in mind that on the same day Smith shared his report, details leaked to the media about Magic’s planned involvement in recruiting Leonard to the Lakers.
By then, Yahoo’s Chris Haynes had confirmed the Lakers and Clippers would get meetings with Leonard, while Woj confirmed that Kawhi’s final meeting would be with the Raptors.
The belief had been set by Woj that Leonard was deciding between the Clippers and Raptors, with the Lakers being major underdogs. But following each passing report that the Lakers believed they would factor into the race more than Woj gave them credit for, Lakers fans begin to grow more and more confident.
And that brings us to the Reddit portion of the story.
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On June 12, three days before the Lakers would make a massive, game-changing trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis, a Reddit user named “RDAmbition” posted in the Lakers Reddit forum saying that the “majority of framework” of a trade between the Lakers and Pelicans for Davis had been agreed upon.
Here is the post:
“Hey guys,
“As of 10pm yesterday, Lakers and pelicans have agreed on majority of the trade. What I was told is that Lakers have official told pelicans what they are putting on the table, and the pelicans have agreed to it
“The problem has been the third team, during the initial stages it was between Chicago and Phoenix. However both teams have fallen off, two new emerging team have came out, the wizards and the hawks.
“There is a high sense of optimism that the trade will get done.”
Reddit users aren’t known for breaking news in their fan forums, but this post had made its way to the top of the Lakers page (172,000 members) and fairly high on the general NBA forum (2.5 million members). A forum moderator explained that they left the post up rather than delete it as they ordinarily would do because “RDAmbition” had previously verified his sources.
And guess what? A few days after that post by RDAmbition, seemingly out of nowhere, the Lakers pulled off a stunning move, acquiring Davis from the Pelicans for three players and a bevy of draft picks and pick swaps. Though RDAmbition did not actually break the news of the trade — Wojnarowski did — the trade being completed three days after RDAmbition said it was close to happening gave him credibility as a Lakers insider.
Despite the seeming credibility, RDAmbition acknowledged in subsequent Reddit threads that the scope of his inside information was limited. For instance he didn’t know of the actual trade being completed on Saturday, just that a three-way deal was being discussed a few days before.
“I didn’t even know about the actual trade either, Latest info I had was the three way trade,” he wrote in a comment.
In that same thread, RDAmbition provided some details about his Lakers sources when asked if he had any updates on Kawhi Leonard. He even used the specific words “I’m not some crazy insider.”
“No, I’m not some crazy insider lol, I just have relationships with certain FO members. I don’t go looking for info, if they give it to me, and it’s something I can share, then I do.”
“FO” stands for front office.
Armed with a belief that RDAmbition had sources within the Lakers — as confirmed by both Lakers forum moderators and RDAmbition’s comments to other users — other users began to treat him as an insider, asking him for his information.
RDAmbition’s reputation received another bump following his comments on Al Horford’s situation.
On June 18, Boston Herald Celtics reporter Steve Bulpett broke the news that Horford was expecting to leave the Celtics to sign a four-year deal elsewhere. Fans, talking heads, and media insiders began to wonder where Horford was going to sign. The LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings were a few of the teams mentioned in connection with Horford. The Athletic’s Shams Charania, another highly respected NBA reporter, mentioned the Philadelphia 76ers as a potential landing spot on June 19, which is believed to be the first time a reporter connected the two sides.
What made the Horford situation different from other free agency deals is that seemingly nobody knew the identity of his “mystery team.” It wasn’t until June 30 when free agency began that the 76ers were revealed to have been the mystery team and that the reason for secrecy had to do with the team’s plans to sign-and-trade Jimmy Butler first.
While the Sixers signing Horford came as a surprise to many, those who listened to RDAmbition would have believed the big man was headed to Philly all along.
On a Reddit thread about a June 21 tweet from Marc Stein saying Horford’s big four-year offer was not coming from Dallas, RDAmbition said “76ers are the likely location, this has not changed.”
By this point, RDAmbition had seemingly established himself as a legitimate NBA insider. He was three days ahead of the curve on the Anthony Davis trade — mentioning the Wizards as a potential third team — and he had called Al Horford to the 76ers nine days before that was announced.
He seemed legit, he was getting things right … and then the Kawhi Leonard thing happened.
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After nailing the Horford story, RDAmbition offered commentary on a few Kawhi Leonard Reddit threads. Speaking specifically about how little info there was on Kawhi, RDAmbition wrote “Very little bro, I honestly don’t know s— lol.”
In another comment, he said he didn’t want to overstep. “This is true, I talk to certain people in the FO here and there,but it’s more friendly/other business non related to Lakers talk, I don’t want to step out of my lane.”
Despite saying he didn’t want to step out of his lane, he continued to offer comments on the Lakers’ pursuit of Kawhi. In response to a thread from a Marc Stein report about the Lakers believing they had a good shot at signing Leonard, RDAmbition wrote, “I can verify this being true. No idea what Kwahi [sic] is thinking, but Lakers FO is confident at making a strong move towards getting Kwahi [sic] here”
RDAmbition offered further Lakers insight, sharing that Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka had seemingly made up somewhat since the “First Take” fiasco, and reporting that the Lakers would likely target Rajon Rondo for a return.
That was all just the appetizer for the real bombshell.
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RDAmbition was moving on up in the online community, seemingly gaining respect and authority on Reddit for his information. He then made an even bigger move and created an RDAmbition Twitter account where he could also share his Lakers information.
In his first tweet, RDAmbition promised the “most accurate” and “up to date information.”
Welcome fellow fans, very exciting time ahead of us all. I will be doing my best to to bring the most accurate and up to date information directly to you, the fans.
— RDAmbition (@RDAmbition_) June 30, 2019
He then tweeted some information about Kawhi Leonard’s primary focus being on load management if he were to join the Lakers.
Then, on 2:52 pm on Monday, July 1, the day after free agency began, RDAmbition tweeted that Leonard’s agent had informed the Clippers’ leadership that the player had “formally ruled out the Clippers.”
In a brief conference call with Lawrence Frank and Jerry West,Mitch Frankel informed the team that Leonard has formally ruled out the Clippers as a possible destination, narrowing his options to the Lakers and Raptors.
— RDAmbition (@RDAmbition_) July 1, 2019
An hour and a half later, he upped the ante, saying Kawhi Leonard to the Lakers was a “done” deal and the two sides were working on minor details before the announcement.
Breaking News: Kawhi Leonard to Lakers is officially done. Both sides working on minor details at the moment before announcing deal. #Lakers #NBA
— RDAmbition (@RDAmbition_) July 1, 2019
That was the first time any “insider” had officially declared Leonard had made a choice in free agency. The tweet instantly went viral and was retweeted over 12,000 times and liked over 33,000 times. It crossed over from being seen just by Lakers fans to being distributed and asked about/addressed by some in the mainstream media.
RDAmbition’s tweet was also picked up by the Reddit community, which went wild with it. People thought it was a done deal — that Leonard was joining LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers to potentially form the greatest big three of all time. Big sports wagers were made on the Lakers to win the championship, and “Kawhi is a Laker” was trending on Twitter as if the news were official.
RDAmbition was the darling of the Lakers community, the one who had brought them the news they wished to hear. He was celebrated for having the news before anyone else and for being the little guy who had made it big.
But as time went on, no announcement from the Lakers or Leonard was made, and the Kawhi free agency tour continued.
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The more RDAmbition’s information spread and the longer his matzo ball hung out there without confirmation, the more curious others in the Reddit community became. Just who was RDAmbition, how did he get his Lakers information, and what was his connection? He must have had some pretty high-level sources, they speculated, in order to know before any other NBA reporter that Leonard was joining the Lakers and an announcement was forthcoming.
Some users began to try connecting some dots, and that’s when the conspiracy theories began.
Figuring that “RD” were initials for someone’s name, some chatter started to percolate that the “RD” in “RDAmbition” could be for Riley Drexel.
Riley Drexel aka Riley Buss-Drexel, is the nephew of Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss. Riley’s mother Janie is married to David Drexel and is the youngest of the late Jerry Buss’ four children with JoAnn Mueller. As of 2017, Janie was listed as the Lakers’ director of charitable services.
Surely RDAmbition must have been getting his information from such a high-level type source, Reddit users thought.
Reddit sleuths felt they had cracked the case! They thought the information was coming directly from the owner, and that’s why no other reporters had it, and why only RDAmbition was able to break it! A connection to the team owner was the type of source that would get RDAmbition verified by the Lakers Reddit moderators. He must have been legit!
People were able to confirm online that Jeanie Buss has a nephew named Riley Drexel and that Jeanie had taken a photo with Riley Drexel and congratulated him on his graduation once. So it must be him!
Congratulations to graduate and my nephew, Riley Drexel! Class of 2011. xoxo auntie Jeanie http://yfrog.com/hst5prabj
— Jeanie Buss (@JeanieBuss) May 29, 2011
Contributing to the frenzy, Reddit moderators deleted posts where other users supposedly “doxxed” (an online term for tracing and tracking down an online person’s real identity) RDAmbition. Several Reddit users concluded that the posts were deleted because they had outed Riley Drexel as RDAmbition.
A few “hey, this might be Riley Drexel” soon turned into “the guy leaking info on Reddit and Twitter is Jeanie Buss’ nephew!”
Never mind that there was no actual proof tying the RDAmbition Reddit account to Riley Drexel, people ran with it.
By Tuesday morning, no announcement had come from the Lakers or Kawhi, but word was spreading online that Buss’ nephew was behind the leaks.
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Things had spiraled so far out of control as of Tuesday that RDAmbition’s Reddit account had been deleted. He also deactivated his Twitter account at some point that week.
But was Reddit correct? Was Riley Drexel really RDAmbition?
The answer is almost certainly no.
Reddit users looking into RDAmbition’s previous post history noticed a slight difference in age between RDAmbition’s claimed age and Drexel’s age. They also said RDAmbition claimed to be Armenian. Drexel is not. Additionally, Drexel is homosexual and organized a Lakers Pride Night in October. RDAmbition had talked in past Reddit comments about having issues with a girlfriend. Larry Brown Sports reached out to Drexel for a comment on this story but had not yet received a response as of publication.
Larry Brown Sports’ investigation reveals that RDAmbition’s sources are not related to the Buss family. Larry Brown Sports also contacted a man believed to be behind the RDAmbition Reddit and Twitter accounts. That man denied ties to the accounts and threatened legal action.
Less than a day after LBS reached out to this individual, the RDAmbition Twitter account coincidentally became active again.
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In his first Twitter post since July 4, RDAmbition on Tuesday sought to explain where he went wrong with his Kawhi Leonard report.
Kawhi Leonard shocked the world, including the Lakers and Raptors FO. I apologize for the premature tweet. Close and trusted sources had told me it was at the finish line with the lakers till Clippers asked for more time. #morecominglater
— RDAmbition (@RDAmbition_) July 9, 2019
Kawhi told Clippers they were out of the race after Kyrie/Butler/KD signing Kawhi's agency later met up with the Lakers that day to let them know he plans on signing with the Lakers pending Raptors meeting. EVERYTHING changed once Clippers informed Kawhi PG is in play.
— RDAmbition (@RDAmbition_) July 9, 2019
The person behind the RDAmbition account disseminated bad information when attempting to break news of Leonard’s supposed agreement to join the Lakers. The tweets sent on July 9 continued the trend of sharing bad information.
Perhaps in an effort to cover up how wrong his information was, RDAmbition described the Lakers’ and Raptors’ front offices as being “shocked” over Leonard’s decision. However, information shared by respected Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur indicates the Raptors’ front office felt the opposite. Arthur wrote in a column published Saturday that the Raptors did not get the sense over the final few days that Leonard was serious about a return to Toronto. Arthur said the Raptors felt they were being used by the Thunder for leverage in trade talks with the Clippers regarding Paul George. Based on that information, do you think the Raptors’ front office would have been “shocked” by Leonard’s decision?
Additionally, RDAmbition’s timelines run in complete conflict with information revealed by ESPN and the Los Angeles Times.
RDAmbition reported in his grand announcement on Monday, July 1 at 2:42 PM PT that Leonard’s people had informed the Clippers in a conference call that they were out. That same afternoon, at 4:09 PM PT, he said the Lakers and Leonard were working on minor details before making the announcement.
However, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported in an article on Saturday that Leonard met with the Clippers at Doc Rivers’ Malibu home on Monday night. Why would Leonard have informed the Clippers they were out as of 2:42 PM PT on Monday but still met with them later that night?
Additionally, both the LA Times’ Tania Ganguli and Shelburne reported that the Lakers met with Leonard on Tuesday. How would the two sides be working on the announcement a day before Leonard even had his free agency meeting with the team?
RDAmbition appeared to have good information about the Anthony Davis trade. He may have had information on Horford or perhaps borrowed from Charania’s report linking Al to the Sixers and got lucky. But on the Kawhi front, his information could not have been more wrong.
Not only was his information wrong, but his reporting efforts may have been detrimental to the Lakers’ actual efforts to sign Leonard.
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Whoever he is, and whatever ties he has to the Lakers, RDAmbition seemed to have taken serious leaps with some information he had been told in an effort to gain attention online.
The attention likely grew to be too much on too serious of a subject matter and probably spread well beyond what RDAmbition ever expected, likely causing him to deactivate his accounts in panic before finally reactivating his Twitter account.
As if all that weren’t enough, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on the July 3 edition of “Get Up” that Kawhi’s camp did not want any leaks about free agency discussions.
Not only were the Lakers failing in that regard because Magic Johnson seemingly had been the only person to leak information about talks with Leonard, but they also dealt with chatter that someone from the Buss family was leaking information online. RDAmbition’s eagerness to report Leonard news may have contributed to the sentiment that the Lakers organization could not be trusted. A report from Cris Carter, who had ties to Leonard’s camp, later said that the leaks hurt the Lakers’ chances of signing Leonard.
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If there is anything to be learned from this whole story, it’s how critical it is to be careful with information both as an outlet and consumer. Credibility is earned by demonstrating accuracy and trust over time. It is built slowly, one story at a time, and not developed by posting things you have heard in an online forum and telling fans what they want to hear. The Los Angeles Times has covered the Lakers for six decades and has exercised caution with its reporting before breaking news. Its sports department has 42,000 Twitter followers. RDAmbition built a following of over 32,000 on Twitter in a matter of days by telling Lakers fans what they wanted to hear … and he was ultimately proven wrong.
This is also why it is important for fans and consumers to evaluate the sources of information and only put belief into the ones proven to be accurate time and time again.
The Lakers and NBA Reddit forums also should consider their role in this whole fiasco. By previously evaluating RDAmbition’s sources and verifying them, they assumed an editorial role and played a part in lending credence to all of RDAmbition’s posts, helping him to build his reputation, status and following. And while RDAmbition may have had a source on a story or two about the Lakers, there was no way for the forum moderators to know how solid those supposed sources were on RDAmbition’s Kawhi Leonard report, but he nonetheless was able to post with the same veracity thanks to previous verification by Reddit.
The larger the subject matter, the more important it is to be accurate to avoid such a spectacular miss. The larger the forum you have, the more people you reach, and the more important it is to be responsible.
And with people like RDAmbition and other wanna-be reporters online leaking Lakers information, it’s very clear that the Lakers franchise needs to tighten up their ship and suss out all the leaks, which have become detrimental to their business.
