The Austin Reaves-Taylor Swift dating rumors that absolutely took the world by storm were made up by an LA Clippers staff member, it turns out.
24-year-old Zain Fahimullah, a social media design associate for the Clippers, has revealed themselves as the mastermind behind the original tweet, Fox Sports reports.
Fahimullah told Fox he was about to board a flight home to LA after visiting family in New York and saw that Swift and The 1975 band member Matty Healy’s breakup was #trending on Twitter (as it was known then – X now).
“He posted side-by-side photos of Swift and Reaves to his Twitter account, RefrigeratorLAL, writing, “Following her breakup, Taylor Swift was reportedly seen in an Arkansas Bar this weekend with star Laker basketball player Austin Reaves,”” Fox’s Melissa Rohlin wrote.
“Since I’m working for the Clippers, I didn’t want to tweet it off my main, so I tweeted it off there,” Fahimullah, a Lakers fan, told FOX Sports last week of his burner account.”
So, why did Fahimullah decide to do this?
“Austin is the trending boy, like the Lakers’ darling of the summer,” he said, explaining his choice of Reaves. “He just signed this [four-year, $54 million] deal. He’s going to Team USA. Also, the contrast between Austin Reaves and Taylor Swift makes it even funnier. Austin being this small-town kid, like a farmer. And Taylor Swift being this mega-superstar. So, I think that’s why I chose him.”
On Google trends, the search term Austin Reaves and Taylor Swift went literally from 0 to 100 (which is the maximum that can be reached).
The original tweet has over four million views and on other pages, has more than seven million views.
Reaves’ brother even weighed in on the post at the time, and though it was hilarious.
He reposted one of the tweets and said, “Austin going to the bar is the most unrealistic part of this whole thing”.
After the post went viral, Fahimullah was a little shook over it all, telling FOX, “I felt kind of bad once it started blowing up and people started talking to Austin about it. I was like, ‘Damn.’ I felt like he shouldn’t have to be answering these questions. I really felt bad.”