When Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard visited the Barclays Center last week to view a Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers playoffs game from the front row, it set off a mini-firestorm across the league. Trade speculation mounted as Brooklyn fans and the Portland faithful engaged in a back-and-forth battle, seeing who could underbid the other for their franchise superstar (Lillard and Nets forward Mikal Bridges).
As it turns out, Lillard was just watching a basketball game. Or that’s the report from long-time insider Chris Haynes via his #thisleague UNCUT podcast with analyst Marc Stein.