Gayle Benson has denied a suggestion from ESPN that she has given an edict for the New Orleans Pelicans not to trade Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Several media outlets aggregated comments from a podcast featuring Jackie MacMullan.

“We have been told, I think, through channels – most of us have heard this same scuttlebutt – that Gayle Benson has basically told [new general manager David Griffin], ‘To the Lakers, over my dead body,’” MacMullan said.

Benson laughed at the report and described it as “totally absurd,” and “completely untrue.”

Other reporters have made similar statements about the Lakers being ruled out by the Pelicans, but that position appears to be conjecture.