Damian Lillard has dominated NBA trade reports ever since he demanded a trade out of the Portland Trail Blazers. His staggering $216,201,799 contract has definitely curtailed the number of teams vying for him ahead of the 2023-24 season. Lillard’s agent Aaron Goodwin’s comments had triggered a wave of reports almost confirming the veteran star’s move to Miami. However, the NBA subsequently issued a memo prohibiting any such indications on the athlete’s part. Meanwhile, a recent article on Lillard has speculated that his imminent divorce with the Blazers organization was kickstarted after a February 8 move last year.
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With the current developments in the Blazers organization, it was clear that Lillard would be out any time soon. Despite the 33-year-old’s public angst to win a Championship before the end of his career, the Blazers only signed young players and a seven-year-old veteran in Jerami Grant to aid the superstar.
Damian Lillard’s discontent with the Blazers may have started in February, 2022
Damian Lillard has represented the city of Portland for eleven years now. He has always pledged his love for the City of Angels and expressed his admiration and gratitude to the Blazers organization and fans. In fact, in a recent interview, when Lillard was asked whether the Blazers could have provided him with more help, Lillard chose not to answer.
“I’m not going to speak on the Blazers. It’s lot of love and respect, but I won’t speak on the Blazers.”
It was clear that Lillard did not expect to stay in the franchise. He has probably felt uncertain with the organization ever since his compatriot, CJ McCollum got traded on 8th Feb, 2022. This was a huge blow as the Blazers failed to make the playoffs once he left.
Lillard mentioned that he was not surprised by the move. However, it left Lillard with no one to support him. He has expressed what McCollum meant to him and how he knew with him, there was someone to have his back. In a recent interview with Andscape, the seven-time All-Star said:
“In my career in the NBA, there’s not another player that I’ve spent more time around…We had talked about it [their separation from Portland] for years, so it wasn’t a surprise. I think that made it a little bit easier. It wasn’t a surprise that one of us was moved, but it was definitely different. If it was one thing that was a constant for year after year after year, I knew I was going to look over and see CJ. I was going to have somebody I could lean on.”
In the article, Lillard’s interviewer and NBA analyst Marc J. Spears speculated that McCollum’s move out of Portland might have triggered Lillard’s trade request in the long run, “Perhaps the beginning of the end for Lillard in Portland took place on Feb. 8, 2022, when his beloved backcourt mate CJ McCollum was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.”
Lillard urged fans to start a petition for a trade
With things unfolding as it has been, Lillard is making an all-out effort to move to a Championship caliber team. Even the Blazers fans have been wanting Dame to be traded to another team for some time now. Seeing this, Lillard sent out a tweet insisting on starting a petition to make that happen.
If the fans wana trade me … start the petition and send it in.
This shows the gradual falling out of love between the Blazers fans and the franchise’s biggest star ever. With only a few weeks remaining before training camp, we may see Lillard in a different uniform.
