Damian Lillard is now a Milwaukee Buck after a months long saga this summer that saw him request a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers, try to force his way to Miami, and ultimately let other contenders like the Bucks know he would be open to joining them.
While things were very quiet for most of August and September, things started to heat up again over the last two weeks prior to Lillard being traded, with lots of rumblings about other teams getting in the mix outside of Miami, headlined by the Toronto Raptors. There was a very serious push, by all accounts, from Toronto to land the star guard despite the Raptors not being on his list of preferred destinations. That had Lillard a bit on edge as he waited to find out where he’d be moving, and that stress was not helped by a prank from Raptors forward OG Anunoby.
At Bucks media day, Lillard sat down with Chris Haynes and told the story of getting a “Welcome to Toronto” text from Anunoby that had him panicking trying to figure out what was going on, only to find out OG was just messing with him.
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
Anunoby is known for being extremely stoic, but has a very dry sense of humor and this is an unbelievably funny prank (that I’m sure Dame did not find funny at the time). Not picking up when Dame called and letting that stress drag out a bit longer before calling back and laughing at him is truly incredible, and while Dame was surely sweating, it’s extremely funny in hindsight.