NYT - What Makes Damian Lillard Great? His Loyalty to Portland.

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by SlyPokerDog, Jan 30, 2023.

  1. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    SPORTS OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

    What Makes Damian Lillard Great? His Loyalty to Portland.
    The Trail Blazers point guard has prized loyalty over easier paths to winning. And that’s what makes him great.

    PORTLAND, Ore. — Damian Lillard should get angry more often.

    Through thick and thin with the only N.B.A. team he has known, Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers’ luminescent point guard, has always possessed a remarkable calm. Still, he is not above letting defeats get to him, as he showed after a recent meltdown loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

    “I’m confused why y’all asking me these questions right now,” Lillard said in a news conference after his team coughed up a 25-point halftime lead. A reporter had asked Lillard about the state of his listing team. I followed up by asking how much more patience he had.

    Lillard’s voice sharpened, sending tension cracking through the room. It felt like his eyes were beaming lasers right through me.

    “The struggles that we’ve had are obvious,” he said, adding that he had been “transparent” about how Portland could improve.


    Problem is, the Blazers are the basketball equivalent of a sturdy Honda Accord. For almost all of Lillard’s 11 seasons in the N.B.A., Portland has been a middling operation: good — sometimes very good — but never great.

    It defies the norm for Lillard to remain on a team that seems stuck in neutral, while never demanding a trade or opting to leave.

    Six times, the 32-year-old has been named an All-Star, and six times he has been chosen for an All-N.B.A. team. He was voted onto the league’s 75th-anniversary team, meant to honor the 75 best players in league history. He won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as a member of the U.S. men’s national team. Cat quick, graceful, brimming with the kind of bold brio that is a hallmark of his native Oakland, Calif., Lillard recently passed Clyde Drexler to become Portland’s leading career scorer.

    And yet during Lillard’s tenure in Portland, the Blazers have made the Western Conference finals only once. The current Blazers are talented — and one of the league’s youngest teams. Billups is learning on the job. If this team is to become a true contender in the loaded Western Conference, it may not be until Lillard is on the downslope.

    Can we be OK with that?

    The past week offered us a window into Lillard’s world. A week ago Sunday: the 121-112 meltdown defeat by the Lakers.

    Portland’s postgame locker room felt like a morgue. In the concourse at Moda Center, the Blazers’ saucer-shaped arena, fans let loose, dishing details to me about the team’s legacy of losing. On a Facebook page for Blazers fans, the reviews were unsparing: “Lillard needs to go for his career to have any chance before it’s too late. This team is DONE!!”

    The next day, the Blazers thumped the San Antonio Spurs, 147-127. Lillard had 37 points and 12 assists.

    Then came Wednesday. Peak Lillard. One for the books. In the Blazers’ 134-124 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz, he scored 60 points, making an eye-popping 72 percent of his shots.

    The remarkable thing was how easy it seemed. Lillard, averaging 30 points a game for the season, never once looked forced against the Jazz. He played what he described later as an “honest game,” always making the right pass, moving the ball to the right spots, pulling up to shoot at exactly the right time. When Jazz players swarmed him, he looked like a buzzing hornet at a summer barbecue that everyone wants to stomp but nobody can catch.

    Brilliant? You bet. According to ESPN, after taking into account combined marksmanship on shot attempts and free throws, it was the most efficient 60-point game in league history. Informed of this, Lillard was shocked, and all smiles.

    According to ESPN, after taking into account combined marksmanship on shot attempts and free throws, it was the most efficient 60-point game in league history. Informed of this, Lillard was shocked, and all smiles.

    “The most efficient 60-point game ever, for real?” he said. “That’s crazy.”

    On Saturday, Lillard continued his torrid pace and again hit his season scoring average, but the injury-depleted Blazers fell meekly to the Toronto Raptors. He is doing all he can, to no avail. The Blazers sit at just 23 wins and 26 losses, mired in mediocrity, 12th out of 15 teams in the West.

    Like many, I’ve often thought that Lillard’s prime years were being wasted and that Portland should do right by him and find a way to move him to a contending team. He’s nearing his mid-30s — years when hardwood courts become quicksand for shifty point guards — and a new breed of young stars is wreaking havoc across the N.B.A.

    LeBron James from Cleveland to Miami, back to Cleveland and then to Los Angeles. James Harden from Houston to Brooklyn to Philadelphia. Example after example. I understand the “win above all else,” “grass is greener everywhere but here” sentiment — and I question it.

    Winning is important, no doubt. But isn’t there more to sports than victory?

    More than any other N.B.A. star of his caliber, Lillard embodies the notion that the journey — the often painful path toward getting better — is the thing. It takes guts and patience and the ability to go against the grain. He has that. It also takes a certain kind of awareness that shows itself with deft passes and clutch shots and even in how players handle life off the court. Indeed, he seems to have that, too.

    Remember how Lillard bristled at my question after the loss to Los Angeles? By chance, I found myself next to him in an arena hallway later.

    He stopped me, shook my hand and looked me straight in the eye. He said he was sorry for his scolding reaction. The look on his face showed genuine sincerity.

    “I didn’t mean any personal disrespect,” he said.

    What stars would do that? Not many. “Sorry” isn’t usually in the playbook. But not many are like Damian Lillard.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/sports/basketball/damian-lillard-portland-trail-blazers.html
     
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  2. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    It's going to be a long time before we see another talent like Dame in a Blazer uniform, and probably even longer to have a talent of his caliber who is also loyal and just an amazing human being.
     
  3. glazeduck

    glazeduck Well-Known Member

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    This might feel a little hot-takey, but it's not meant to be. This franchise (and potentially its future) and its fanbase are effectively Dame's hostages, much like Kobe's final few years in LA; and -- so long as we don't overly mortgage the future -- I'm okay with it.

    Let's face it, the reality is that we're very likely not going to win a championship with him here. There simply are not enough resources, his contract eats up too much cap and we're not an appealing enough market to luck into enough resources for that to happen. The *right* move, from purely a personnel standpoint, would be to trade him while he still has value, and build around Ant and Shae, but that's both a massive slap in his face and franchise suicide. We've bemoaned the fact that we can't get a superstar to want to stay here for the entirety of this franchises history, we simply can't trade him now. So sure, let's do what we can to put the best pieces around him and keep giving it a shot, but I really balk at some of these ideas offering up 3 future 1s plus Ant and Nurk for players who might be slightly better than Jerami Grant.

    Dame will likely always be my all-time favorite Blazer, and his legacy as our GOAT is 100% cemented at this point. But we do find ourselves in a bit of a no-win situation at this point in his career. As much as we all wish we could either get Wemby or make some franchise swinging trade, I think I've come around to the fact that we're just going to have to enjoy hovering in mediocrity and watch Dame scream up the all-time scoring list.
     
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  4. e_blazer

    e_blazer Rip City Fan

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    Who was the author of this piece?
     
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  5. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Honestly don't care if we win a championship with Dame. I'm just enjoying we have the greatest trail blazer ever and we get to watch him.

    Lately for me it's way more about character than championships. No regrets if we don't get one. Enjoying it all the same.
     
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  6. tlongII

    tlongII Legendary Poster

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    By Ben Golliver
     
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  7. e_blazer

    e_blazer Rip City Fan

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    LOL. Actually, now that The Athletic and NYT are joined at the hip, I was wondering if Jason Quick had written it.
     
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  8. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    e_blazer likes this.
  9. KingSpeed

    KingSpeed Veteran

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    Kurt Streeter
     
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  10. BBert

    BBert Weasels Ripped My Flesh

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    I don't expect another in my lifetime. My loyalty to Dame is equal to his loyalty to us. He is untouchable. If Dame wants to play until he's 50, I would never trade or cut him.
     
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  11. Ed O

    Ed O Administrator Staff Member Administrator

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    That is totally a fair perception, but definitely not one I share.

    Dame is a fantastic player and it's awesome he is dedicated to Portland, but I don't care about the Blazers as much when they're not very good, and they're not very good. They're not GOING to be very good because of the decision that the the franchise made. That's not Dame's fault--he's trying to win, and he's good at playing basketball--but if Dame's interests and my interests conflict, then I'm going to care more about MY interests.

    So, yeah. Dame is amazing. But I wish the team were amazing, even if he weren't in Portland.
     
  12. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    We have no control over it so I'm just enjoying the ride.
     
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  13. RR7

    RR7 Well-Known Member

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    Or you could spend your free time being mad at an entertainment choice that you choose!
     
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  14. crandc

    crandc Well-Known Member

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    Dog, I posted link in Dame thread. As usual, cats outrun dogs
     
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  15. KingSpeed

    KingSpeed Veteran

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    Dame may have an effect on Shaedon and Ant (if we keep Ant). They may be loyal too. I think Shaedon has the chance to be better than Dame and both Shae and Ant have a chance to break Dame’s scoring record since they started younger.
     
  16. Hey

    Hey Active Member

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    Hard disagree. We have the pieces to make an all-in trade but we’re scared to make it. Kobe’s last three years he was washed. Dame is still cooking, and with a proper team through a Pau Gasol like trade, we could easily be a top 3 seed contender for the next few years.
     
  17. swish3

    swish3 Well-Known Member

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    Dame is the nucleus of what will become another Blazer NBA Championship team. The Blazer organization has taken the first steps toward adding talent that will take the team there. Those steps will continue with talent and developing talent progress in this and next year.

    With patience for that the revamped Blazer group can do, we can look forward to Dame continuing to be among the top 5 scoring leaders in the NBA, with more highest efficiency records and a growing list of Blazer and NBA records.

    Let's enjoy Dame's greatness and the unique loyalty he has shown to Portland. May it continue for at least the next 8 years!
     

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