Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks last week following an offseason of speculation and at least one very cruel prank.
A few days before he was sent to Milwaukee in a blockbuster deal, Lillard was led to believe for a brief period that he had landed with the Toronto Raptors. TNT’s Chris Haynes was in the middle of a phone conversation with Lillard when the star point guard “had to get off abruptly,” as Haynes described it.
In an interview with Haynes at Bucks media day on Monday, Lillard explained what had happened. During his phone conversation with Haynes, Lillard received a text message from Raptors swingman O.G. Anunoby. Lillard says the text said “welcome to Toronto.”
The prank Raptors forward OG Anunoby pulled on Bucks star Damian Lillard that shocked him days before actual trade: “Welcome to Toronto.” pic.twitter.com/kSJ4WAAIKv
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 3, 2023
“Obviously, everything was up in the air,” Lillard recalled. “I was on the phone and I just got a random text from O.G. like, ‘Welcome to Toronto.’ He’s always messing around and joking and stuff like that. … I finally called him and he didn’t answer. Then he called me back and he was laughing, so I (knew). It just caught me off-guard.”
There was a report last week that the Raptors were considered the front-runners to land Lillard. Anunoby was probably trying to will it into existence, but you can understand why Lillard believed him. Next time, Lillard probably will not take anything his buddy says at face value.
