The way in which ESPN's Brian Windhorst described the New Orleans Pelicans handling of the Lakers' interest in Anthony Davis is the stuff of legend. During his appearance on Rachel Nichol's The Jump, Windhorst, an NBA insider in his own right, described the "running count" of the Pelican's trade demands for Davis, as nothing short of a giant act of trollery - and in all honesty, he's dead right in his assessment, the New Orleans never had any intention of dealing AD to the Lakers, believe it or not.
"It’s not just possible, it’s what happened. I know that the Pelicans, you know—the Pelicans had a method to their madness, in the way this went. Did they know it was gonna lead to a 40-point loss, because everybody’s upset? Not necessarily," Windhorst answered Nichols when asked to clear up the notion that Pelicans' management was operating out of vengeance for LeBron's (Rich Paul too) tampering.
What Brian Windhorst is describing as an information war meant to disrupt Lakers' team chemistry (simply out of vengeance) is actually just a case of grown-ups putting the good old "bait-and-switch" to good use. The Pelicans, represented by coach Alvin Gentry and GM Dell Demps, didn't receive any backing from the NBA over "tampering" allegations, so they concocted a countermeasure all their own. Welcome to the new age of NBA pettiness, where grown men try their darndest to circumvent the CBA, for nefarious purposes.