If you are trying to find University of Miami Canes Hoops point guard Angel Rodriguez on his days off, you can find him at the beach. Where you can’t find him? Twitter and Facebook.
That’s right, gals and guys. It’s time for rumor control here at UBuzz.
In an interview with Rodriguez for another story, I asked him about a hilarious tweet of his:
I think I’m going to quit basketball to become a singer.. the first Spanish @Usher
— Angel Rodriguez (@angel13pr) April 9, 2015
“Do you like to sing?” I asked. His response came as quite a surprise
“First of all, I don’t know who’s running that Twitter,” he said. “But I like to sing, so it was pretty random, but I guess it’s true. I don’t want to be the next Usher, but I do like to sing.”
My response should have been “Sing to me, Angel!” but I was still too caught up in the fact that someone has been posing as UM’s down-to-earth and honest point guard.
“I’ve looked at it, and everything on Twitter is all about me, me, me and the team, team, team,” Rodriguez said. “They don’t act the same way I act. First of all, I don’t like to post everything how I feel and stuff like that. That’s why I don’t have Twitter.”
I seemed to be more affected by this poser than Angel, though.
“I don’t really mind,” Rodriguez said. “It doesn’t change my life.”
I responded: “You have your Facebook page, though. That’s actually you?”
“No that’s not me either,” he answered.
“You’re fan page isn’t you?” I asked in disbelief.
“No,” he said.
“No way,” I said, still shocked.
“I’m serious,” Rodriguez said laughing.
Why was I so stunned? A month ago, The Miami Hurricane ran a story about how clever Rodriguez is on social media.
“Rodriguez confirmed via Twitter that he runs the Facebook page himself, but better yet, he has used artistic license to self-verify the page with a fake blue check mark.”
The editor even spoke to the poser through the Facebook page, of course thinking it was Angel himself.
“Rodriguez told The Miami Hurricane that his friend who is studying business marketing is actually the one who edited the picture. He has used Photoshop to add the fake blue check mark to the pages of a few other athletes as well, according to Rodriguez.”
“My friend edited that pic for me since it’s almost impossible to get verified,” Rodriguez said in a Facebook message.
The real Angel did say he knows who runs the Facebook page.
“I know the guy that has it because he went to high school with me,” Rodriguez said. “But I don’t control any of that. I don’t know why he has it.”
So strange. So very, very, very strange.
But Angel thinks it’s pretty funny. He said the Twitter and Facebook pages never post anything negative, so that’s why he doesn’t mind.
The only social media account Rodriguez uses is Instagram.
“So everything you see on Instagram is me. That’s it,” he said.
While laughing, I told him that I would unfollow his fake accounts. But actually…I am…right now.