NBA fans, media try to make fun of Marcus Bingham Jr. and it backfires

Media outlets got headlines wrong, making fun of a Marcus Bingham Jr. play but it backfired on the media and NBA fans.

Marcus Bingham Jr. is the latest Spartan to participate in NBA Summer League action as the Mavericks began action recently. He’s fighting for a roster spot with Dallas and he needs a good performance this summer.

On Friday night, it looked like he made a potentially huge mistake, scoring on his own basket in a Summer League game against the Pacers. Every media outlook took the highlight and ran with it, reciting similar headlines like “he scored on the wrong basket.”

Went the wrong way and scored on the wrong basket 😅 pic.twitter.com/L2KR3CSNky

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 15, 2023

NBA fans chipped in with criticisms of their own after seeing the highlight with no context. Everyone just assumed that Bingham took a pass from his teammate, recorded a backcourt violation, and embarrassingly scored on his own hoop.

Well, that’s not what happened and everyone who took a cheap shot at him was wrong.

In fact, it was an officiating mistake. The teams were facing the wrong way, for whatever reason, and officials had them going to the wrong baskets. Bingham noticed this and took a pass from his teammate and sprinted down the floor for an easy dunk. The refs blew the play dead so the dunk didn’t count but it should have. He was the smartest player on the floor in that situation.

You can tell after the dunk that the Mavericks actually got back on defense at the end that they were originally faced to play offense. But most media outlets just kept the incorrect headlines.

And Bingham responded on Twitter after the game.

I wasn’t wrong 😂😂😂 media a do anything https://t.co/IHWrTdDT9D

— Marcus Bingham Jr (@marcusbingham0) July 15, 2023

Give the former Michigan State star some respect. Everyone and their brother got their jokes in about Bingham on Friday night, but he got the last laugh.

All this disrespect on his birthday, no less.

Update: Bleacher Report deleted the tweet.