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The Los Angeles Lakers got the best news of their short offseason thus far on Tuesday night, finding out that they would pick second overall in the 2016 NBA draft. This news was extra great for the franchise, because they would have had to send their pick to the Philadelphia 76ers had it landed outside of the top three selections in the draft.
Before the announcement that the team would get to keep their first rounder, the biggest news of the summer was the Lakers hiring their former forward Luke Walton as head coach after firing the much-maligned Byron Scott. Walton has yet to get to work for the Lakers, the Golden State Warriors assistant will finish the team's postseason run before returning to Los Angeles, but he is still keeping track of his new employer's fortunes from afar.
Warriors vice president of public relations Raymond Ridder took advantage of Walton's curiosity of his new team's state of affairs to play a prank on him:
Before lottery, Warriors PR czar Raymond Ridder texted Luke Walton that Lakers got 4th pick. Luke fell for the prank, now has last laugh.
— Bill Oram (@billoram) May 18, 2016
THAT is just messed up. Imagine if one of your friends had texted you that the Lakers lost their pick. Devastating, right? Now imagine how you'd feel if you had to coach the team for the next few years. Who needs enemies when you have friends to pull pranks like this? That's just cold, even if Walton did (as Bill Oram noted) get the last laugh.
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