NBA Centel Rises From the Dead After Premature Mourning Over X Restriction (UPDATE)

UPDATED 2/27, 1:04 p.m. ET: The reports of NBA Centel’s death are, as it turns out, greatly exaggerated.

Thursday afternoon, mere hours after the parody account appeared to have been hit with a restriction on X, @TheNBACentel thanked fans for their support during the brief absence and let the world know they are indeed “baaaaack.”

Naturally, a response to Stephen A. Smith was shared shortly before the comeback confirmation, like so:

See original story below.

Are the days of getting centel’d done for good?

That was the fear shared by many NBA fans this week as the oft-cited parody account appeared to have disappeared on X, though the exact nature of what, exactly, transpired remained unclear as of this writing. On X, @TheNBACentel has amassed more than 360,000 followers, all while not infrequently being mistaken as a legitimate news source despite its widely known status as a parody account.

Subsequent X updates from reporter A.J. Perez and Ballsack Sports, another parody account, suggested that whatever action that has been taken against the Centel account is expected to amount to a “temporary restriction.” Though the cause of this action remains unknown, some have speculated that it could be connected to the account, which has not originally been officially labeled as parody on the platform. Such speculation, however, has not been confirmed.

By early Thursday morning, the Centel account remained visible, though none of its past updates were showing on its page. The account was also now carrying an official Parody Account label.

Many were quick to publicly mourn the loss of Centel, albeit (possibly) prematurely. Stephen A. Smith, for example, offered a simple “RIP Centel” on Wednesday night. A number of NBA team accounts also joined in, while others opted to call for Centel’s freedom instead of assuming the account had met its proverbial death.

Pointed out during the confusion is the obvious hypocrisy of X, formerly known as Twitter before its Elon Muskification, seemingly taking action against an account of this nature while the platform itself continues to become more and more of a cesspool.

Join the mourning below.