“What timing,” Bassam said in a phone interview. “It’s like they knew or something.”

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Bassam shot another commercial for Paisano’s in August featuring Redskins players Ryan Kerrigan, Daron Payne and Josh Doctson. According to the plan, the Northern Virginia-based chain aired that spot throughout the NFL season and debuted a Capitals-focused ad featuring Andre Burakovsky and Devante Smith-Pelly last month. Morris’s commercial was scheduled to premiere this week.

“We were going back and forth editing the basketball one and we just finished it [Wednesday] night,” Bassam said. “We never heard any rumors about Markieff being traded, so that kind of came out of nowhere.”

Bassam said he considered pulling Morris’s commercial entirely, but ultimately decided to let it run “for a few weeks.” The spot will debut during Saturday’s broadcast of the Wizards-Bulls game.

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“We don’t know if fans will laugh and enjoy it, or be upset,” Bassam said. “[Morris] and his wife were really excited to be in the commercial, and he was a great guy to work with, so we’re sad to see him go.”

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There’s nothing to be done about the more than two million delivery menus featuring an image of Morris that Paisano’s printed a couple of weeks ago. Bassam said they’ll last at least three months.

Meanwhile, Bassam is counting down the days until the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 25, as there’s been speculation for months that Burakovsky, one of the Capitals’ pizza pitchmen, will be dealt.

“We might switch to running the Caps commercial during Wizards games,” Bassam said. “Hopefully Andre doesn’t get traded.”