It’s rare that a sports parody account on social media has much resonance with professional athletes. But “NBA Centel” became so popular that even NBA teams and superstars were aware of it.

What is NBA Centel and why are fans mourning that the Twitter account is no longer active? We explain it all for you.

NBA Centel had built a significant following in the NBA world as a parody account for the league's news. On Wednesday, many were surprised to see the account restricted.

A parody NBA account, known for posting fake, but plausible rumors, recently had its posts suddenly removed from X.

The spoof account and NBA inside joke was suspended on X on Wednesday, but returned to full glory one day later.

Time to start double-checking those X tweets again ... NBA parody account NBACentel is back up and running after going offline on Wednesday!

And now, it appears that we may have lost the one X account that every basketball fan can say they've been fooled by: NBA Centel, a play on the legit account NBA Central, which boasts nearly 1.8 million followers.

The Atlanta Hawks official social media account took a hilarious dig at the viral NBA parody account being banned.

If you've followed the NBA on X, you must have been Centel'd at least once over the last few years. The parody account routinely tricked players and fans with witty and exaggerated "fake" stories.

A popular NBA parody X account appeared to be shut down on Wednesday. The disappearance of “NBA Centel” had everyone from the Sacramento Kings to O’Shea Jackson Jr. tweeting out farewell messages. NBA Centel is known for its satirical posts about basketball,