While Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo are vastly different players, they do have one thing in common this 2022-23 season: both of their teams massively underperformed and had disappointing ends to their seasons. Seems as though one of them is looking to capitalize off of this disappointment.
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Dame and the Portland Trailblazers have had a back-and-forth for years now about his future with the franchise. While the former 6th overall pick wants to stay in PDX, the front office isn’t doing itself any good by surrounding him with subpar talent and not a single All-Star.
As for Giannis, he did win himself a championship in 2021 with the Bucks, ending a 50 year drought. However, their most recent loss against the Miami Heat where they got gentleman swept in the first round is as disappointing as it gets for a team that was considered to be an Eastern Conference favorite.
Damian Lillard puts up a not-so cryptic re-tweet on his Twitter
Damian Lillard seems to be in full recruiting mode this offseason. He’s done everything from show up courtside for the Brooklyn Nets-Philadelphia 76ers game to stay active on Twitter to side with Draymond Green for stomping on Domantas Sabonis’s chest.
Both Draymond and Mikal Bridges are close friends of Dame and it seems as though he’s looking to add another star player into that inner circle of his. Following the Bucks’ Game 5 loss to the Miami Heat, Dame took to Twitter to retweet a photoshopped image of Giannis Antetokounmpo in a Blazers jersey.
He hasn’t spoken out about this yet and most probably will not. However, it’s very clear what his intentions are going into this offseason. He’s set to make about $45 million in 2023-24 and adding another player of that caliber to the roster will be tough from a cap space perspective but having Dame and Giannis on the same team almost guarantees a deep Playoff run regardless of the pieces around them.
Damian Lillard has tried this before
When Kevin Durant demanded a trade away from the Brooklyn Nets in the 2022 offseason, Damian Lillard was first on the scene to try to recruit him. He very blatantly put up a photoshopped image of himself with KD in a Blazers uniform on his Instagram story.
Jusuf Nurkic did the same as well. Unfortunately for Blazers fans, not only did Durant’s brother shut down these rumors pretty quickly, Portland wasn’t even on KD’s list of preferred destinations as those included the likes of Phoenix and Miami.
