Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard is preparing well for his career after basketball, providing scoops on reporters' job changes. Lillard took to Twitter to announce former ESPN writer Chris Haynes would be joining Yahoo Sports as a Senior NBA Insider.
Sources:Free Agent reporter @ChrisBHaynes reaches agreement w/yahoo sports as Senior NBA insider, Will help build their NBA team.More coming
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 5, 2018
It didn't take long for his tweet to make shockwaves around the net, in an unforeseen role reversal that saw the First Team All-NBA floor general get the nod of approval from most of Haynes' colleagues and fans —swiftly earning the nickname of Damian Wojanowski, in jest of, ESPN scoopmaster Adrian Wojnarowski.
I’m dropping shit all year long on they ass lol https://t.co/P9cUPEYFjp
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) September 5, 2018
Michael Lazarus, a Sports Product Manager at Yahoo, learned of the free agent acquisition through Lillard himself.
This is a first — learning about a trade on my team from a player! https://t.co/yVNlFrml8r
— Michael Lazarus (@mroblaz) September 5, 2018
So how did Lillard learn of such information?
The Blazers floor general has been familiar with Haynes even before he became an NBA national reporter, as he worked for CSN Northwest (now NBC Sports Northwest) as one of his first major gigs in the NBA.
The two recently had a wine-infused hours-long conversation including backcourt partner C.J. McCollum in March, as Portland rose to the third seed in the Western Conference. In short, they've been familiar for a while.
Haynes, a Fresno native that worked as a security guard in Oregon before getting his first professional gig in the media business, will likely replace former scoop ace Shams Charania, who left for The Athletic last month, along with a partnership with Stadium channel.
It is unclear who will replace Haynes for ESPN, who did most of his coverage on the Golden State Warriors, though the network has never been short of journalistic talent willing to sign to the beat.