KFI Reports Trade as April Fool’s Joke

Joe McDonnell had a phony scoop to begin his Sunday night talk show on KFI radio, and it was a biggie. A trade: the Lakers sending Michael Cooper and Byron Scott to the Clippers for Benoit Benjamin and Jeff Martin.

So-called real news. Tape from Cooper and Scott. Everybody had an opinion on, uh, the deal. For 55 minutes, McDonnell led the listeners on.

“We must have had at least a half-dozen calls,” said Don Marx, associate producer at KFI.

Then the Lakers’ Mychal Thompson became a co-conspirator. His team got the best of it, he said. Cooper was an “old man,” said Thompson. Scott was “overrated.”

“April Fool!” McDonnell said.

Postscript: The NBA trade deadline was Feb. 22.