April 03, 2018
The Villanova Wildcats cruised to their second NCAA title in three years on the strength of sophomore Donte DiVincenzo's exhilarating 31-point performance Monday night against the Michigan Wolverines.
At 21 years old, the Delaware product left his mark on the basketball world with a series of backbreaking three-pointers, repeatedly holding off Michigan's attempts to claw back some momentum. He was rightly named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
But there is one area where DiVincenzo does not want his mark left on the world: Twitter.
In the aftermath of the championship, several unsavory tweets from an account linked to DiVincenzo were recirculated online— seven years after they were published.
The first tweet, dating back to August 2011, referenced a lyric from jailed Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill's song "Derrick Rose."
"Ballin on these n*ggas like I’m derrick rose!” the tweet read.
DiVincenzo, who played basketball in high school at the Salesianum School in Wilmington, would have been 14 years old at the time of the tweet.
"I didn't do that," DiVincenzo said after Monday night's game, according to USA Today. "It's my account, yes. But I never remember doing that."
The account, which hadn't been active since 2016, was quickly deactivated.
Other crude tweets were collected by Twitter users and reposted early Tuesday morning. (Warning: tweets contain explicit language).
Bro delete your old tweets @DonteDivincenzo 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/LwCJ0wciEa
— College Town™ (@CollegeT0wn) April 3, 2018
The Villanova men's basketball team briefly posted a statement of their own on Twitter.
“Unfortunately a Twitter account belonging to Donte DiVincenzo was hacked tonight,” the team said. “None of the statements attributed to Donte are his – he has not used the account for months. The account has been deactivated. Please disregard any of these false tweets.”
But then that tweet was deleted, too.
Now villanova has deleted their tweet. This is wild. pic.twitter.com/SzOxbxKC4I
— Joe Davis (@ByJoeDavis) April 3, 2018
Even if DiVincenzo's Twitter account had been hacked on Monday, it raises the question of whether it would be possible for a hacker to back-date tweets to 2011.
If nothing else, this serves as a reminder that social media can be a dangerous toy. Burgeoning star athletes should be mindful of their past immaturity on the platform, or else the greatest moments of their lives can be stained by a youthful indiscretion.
