Mason Plumlee won’t soon forget Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017.
The Portland Trail Blazers were finalizing a trade that sent Plumee to the Denver Nuggets when the 26-year-old arrived for work with another pressing issue on his mind: a burglar had broken into his car in a garage near his home, taking off with some of his valuables.
“I went in early to the facility to start canceling my checkbook, my credit cards,’’ Plumlee said, per CSN Northwest’s Jason Quick. “And someone said, ‘(Blazers’ president of basketball operations Neil Olshey) wants to meet with you.’”
That’s how Plumlee learned about the trade 30 minutes before he otherwise would.
“They told me I wasn’t going to practice today,” he continued.
The Blazers dealt Plumlee and a 2018 second-round pick to Denver in exchange for Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic and the Memphis Grizzlies’ 2017 first-round pick. His move was the first significant deal of the NBA’s unofficial “trade season.”
Plumlee wasn’t expecting to change teams ahead of the Feb. 23 NBA trade deadline.
“As I talked to my agent (recently), he said he would be surprised if I was moved before the trade deadline,” he said.
Plumee is enjoying a career year in his fourth NBA season, which now has taken a fresh twist.
The day Plumlee experienced what many NBA players and far too many members of society have felt will undoubtedly live long in his memory.
Thumbnail photo via Troy Wayrynen/USA TODAY Sports Images
