One potential casualty of the financial-markets meltdown is Bear Stearns’ lacrosse team, which beat other financial firms’ teams to win the first Gotham League championship last summer. But one definite casualty is 24-year-old Chad Burdette, a onetime Trinity College laxer and team captain at rival banking-lacrosse powerhouse Lehman Brothers. “I had a couple buddies [at Bear] who gave me a hard time” about joining their competitor, Burdette told The Wall Street Journal after Bear was purchased by JPMorgan Chase. “I guess I got the last laugh now.” But Burdette’s Lehman bosses weren’t amused; he no longer works there. “It was pretty stupid what he said,” says Garssen Wong, the Bear team captain, who pledges to keep his championship team together, whether or not its members still work together. Said a Lehman rep, “If someone speaks and says they work at Lehman Brothers, then they are speaking for Lehman. We expect our employees to use good judgment.” Burdette didn’t respond to messages.
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