Did ESPN think nobody would care that they deepfaked a Damian Lillard interview?

It's as bad as you can imagine (as of the last week, Lillard is playing his first season for the Bucks):

> Last week, after the Milwaukee Bucks’ opening night win against the Philadelphia 76ers, fans were treated to a video of Damian Lillard talking ...

> The video, which features Lillard fiddling with his Bucks jersey while an ESPN mic is extended out in front of him, was actually recorded in the NBA Bubble back in 2020 when Lillard was still with the Trailblazers. Turns out, ESPN digitally altered the video — replacing the reporter interviewing Dame with an ESPN mic and putting Lillard in a Bucks uni — and then tweeted it out after the game as if it had just happened.

They took a three year old interview, faked the jersey - the fake jersey being one Lillard only has worn for the last week - and swapped out the original reporter for a microphone, apparently swapped some other detail, and timed it to appear to be after a game last week.

Unless ESPN is in the business of selling creative fiction, this is an irresponsible way to treat their sports journalism license. In fact, maybe media institutions should be licensed for reporting now, and any deepfakes should be labeled as such. What a shitshow.