This year fans got to see numerous big names and faces changing teams and getting traded ahead of the NBA trade deadline. The two main sources of reliable information related to the NBA have been Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski on social media. However, a false tweet by Woj had point guard Dennis Smith Jr. in a state of flux when he found out the news of him getting traded trending on X.
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This may be the first time when Adrian Wojnarowski, a veteran and reliable analyst, ended up tweeting false information on social media. While this may have been an error on his part, it sure managed to create a tense couple of hours for Dennis Smith Jr.
Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that the Brooklyn Nets were trading Dennis Smith Jr. to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Thaddeus Young. This trade that never took place ended up creating quite a lot of chaos in the NBA world, especially for Dennis Smith Jr. as well.
After the news broke on social media, Smith Jr. told the media that his phone started blowing up with notifications and what he felt after he found out he was getting traded. However, he soon got a clarification that it was indeed a typing error and he was not going anywhere.
“I got Woj tweets as alerts on my phone… I see my name pop up and I’m like, ‘Hell nah!’… My phone’s blowing up. I ain’t even get no pregame nap that day. I was sick.”
The trade did involve a ‘Dennis’ but instead of Smith Jr., it was Dennis Schroder. As per the official website of the NBA, the Brooklyn Nets sent Spencer Dinwiddie to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Dennis Schroder and Thaddeus Young.
This wasn’t the only trade that the Brooklyn Nets were a part of. The Nets franchise was part of a three-team trade that also involved the Phoenix Suns and the Memphis Grizzlies. The trade sent Royce O’Neal to the Suns.
Brooklyn got Keita Bates-Diop, Jordan Goodwin, the draft rights to Vanja Marinkovic from the Grizzlies, and three future second-round picks from the Phoenix Suns.
Damian Lillard almost went through something just like Dennis Smith Jr.
This may have been the first time Adrian Wojnarowski made a mistake that ended up with such reactions and responses from not just fans but players in the league as well. However, Shams Charania, another reliable source of information also went through somewhat of the same ordeal last year.
Last season Shams Charania tweeted about a four-team trade that only involved three transactions. The supposed trade sent Damian Lillard to the Toronto Raptors, the Suns received Jusuf Nurkic and the Portland Trail Blazers got DeAndre Ayton. This tweet, however, was soon deleted by the NBA Insider.
The tweet may have been false but it did lead to a hilarious story from Damian Lillard who revealed that he got pranked by OG Anunoby because of it.
Though Lillard seemed calm and collected in the video above, you can be sure he must’ve panicked when he initially felt that the trade was indeed happening. As for the tweet by Woj, it led to somewhat of the same outcome as Dennis Smith Jr. was able to laugh it off while talking to the media recently.
