I suspected all along this was false because of who they chose to report. Had it been a more tenured justice, it would have been more believable but Roberts and Alito “just got there” in terms of arriving at the Court so they’d make the least sense in wanting to step down.
IOW, if you want to start a rumor that you don’t want seriously believed, you pick the unlikeliest of candidates for it to be true - like Phyllis Schafly coming out as a lesbian (note to any dimwits - that’s not true. I’m just making an absurd example) so it would set off the b.s. meter of most thinking people.
If the prof wanted to make the rumor believable, he’d have picked on Thomas or Scalia.