An article claimed that Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Dončić recorded a 42-inch vertical at the 2018 NBA Draft Combine. He was never even there.

In a fascinating feature story from Men’s Health, basketball fans were given remarkable insight into the body transformation that Dončić has had so far this summer. There was a lot of great stuff to unpack from this story about how the former Mavericks star got in such great shape before the upcoming FIFA EuroBasket tournament.

One detail, which we covered earlier today, particularly stands out though. The story said that Dončić has not tested his max vertical recently, but it also erroneously cites a 42-inch vertical from an NBA Draft Combine that Dončić never attended.

Oh, and he can jump. Lost in the narratives about his weight and conditioning is the fact that, as a 19-year-old at the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine, Luka delivered a 42-inch vertical leap. After a full offseason with Team Luka, he’s not sure that number is still the same. “This year, we didn’t measure the jumping yet,” he says. “But I think it’s a little bit higher.”

There is a lot to unpack about this one but let’s try to take a stab at it.

More: Luka Dončić looks great but his supposed vertical is doubtful at best

It is at least believable based on how great Dončić looks right now, though it is impossible to prove without actually verifiable testing numbers, that he can jump higher than he could in 2018.

What is possible to confirm is that despite what the story from authors Andrew Heffernan and Ebenezer Samuel stated, Dončić never actually recorded a 42-inch vertical at the 2018 NBA Draft Combine. In fact, Dončić was not even in the United States at the time of the athletic testing.

If someone were to use the terms “Luka Dončić vertical” and “NBA Draft Combine” into a search engine, perhaps Google’s AI would send them to an article.

This one has Dončić is in the headline but actually discusses Donte DiVincenzo, who did have a 42-inch vertical (via The Athletic):

“The fearless nature of DiVincenzo’s game was on display for everyone to see in the five-on-five settings. He was one of the best players on the floor in the first scrimmage game, stuffing the stat sheet with 3s, rebounds, blocked shots and steals. His athleticism, motor and frame stood out even among the best players the five-on-five setting had to offer. To match that, he equaled Okogie’s 42-inch vertical leap as tops at the combine.”

Maybe the AI summary confused Dončić with Donte because of the slight similarities of their names.

We do not know what happened after that during the actual interview process for the cover story, but if Dončić was asked if he felt he could jump higher now than he could during the pre-draft process, it is easy to imagine possible miscommunications.

Dončić may have heard “42 inches” and not known exactly what that meant because he is from Slovenia, where they use the metric system.

So to summarize, Dončić never recorded a 42-inch vertical at the 2018 NBA Draft Combine and it is highly doubtful that it is better than that now. If a 6-foot-6 player as skilled as Dončić also had a vertical that exceeded 42 inches, we would certainly notice that on the court because Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point scoring record would be in very sudden danger.

NOTE WITH UPDATE AT 2:50 PM ET:

Men’s Health has since changed the story two times since the publication of this post.

The first update read like this:

Oh, and he can jump. Lost in the narratives about his weight and conditioning is the fact that, reports have circulated that he has a vertical leap of more than 40 inches. After a full offseason with Team Luka, he’s not sure that number is still the same. “This year, we didn’t measure the jumping yet,” he says. “But I think it’s a little bit higher.”

Of course, the “reports” that “circulated” originated from this story. The second update now reads like this:

After a full offseason with Team Luka, his vertical leap has likely improved too. “This year, we didn’t measure the jumping yet,” he says. “But I think it’s a little bit higher.”

Neither update from Men’s Health was issued with a correction anywhere in the story.

Update: Men’s Health did finally add a correction to the bottom of its story that read:

An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that Dončić recorded a 42-inch vertical leap at the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine. He in fact did not participate in the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine.