My interpretation - Maybe they(Olshey, Paul, Terry, Dame) realized Dame was better suited to be the leader. After being put into a position he was uncomfortable in, and trying his hardest albeit coming up short. Portland got their leader in Dame, and Aldridge got back into his comfort zone in SA. On what he wants to say about dame http://forwardcenter.net/transcript-lamarcus-aldridge-discusses-his-return-to-portland/
What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about what happened behind closed doors while Aldridge was here.
As a team first guy, I fully agree with the "no player alone on a billboard" policy. OTOH, it is kind of sad that you would need that as a formal rule. That makes LMA sound really petty and immature.
Yes and those a great quotes but I'm not sure they entirely support your point. In your second quote the mention of how the Spurs are "never alone on a billboard" speaks to the first quote of having issue with Oden and Roy. It doesn't necessarily mean he was upset that Dame was "more popular" than Aldridge, but more likely that it reminded him of what he considered a selfish basketball culture. As we all know now dame grouped this team up during the summer in San Diego because he wanted it to feel more like a family than a team. A good example of why not to assume that just because something happened one way in the past, means it will happen the same in the future.
But he's talking about Dame's Adidas billboards. The Blazers have no control over that. Dame is more marketable because of his personality. Aldridge is quiet and introverted. He's not a good interview. He's his own worst enemy when it comes to endorsements.
Did you see this part? "He wanted talent around him, but never too much that it might cast a shadow on his own marquee. Pleasing Aldridge was never easy, and nobody knew that better than the Portland Trail Blazers." Who the fuck feels that way? Dame would never give a shit, as long as he's winning.
That is cleverly worded. I look at it like he never wanted anyone else to be held in higher esteem than him, not necessarily that he wanted to be the best on his team, or the biggest name. Just look at how he has handled his short time in SA, where he is 4th or 5th on the popularity totem pole after the big 3 and Kawhi. The difference is the Spurs aren't making him feel like they want it to be known where he stands. It seems like he felt that way in the Roy/Oden years, and perceived the direction to be headed that way with the emergence of Lillard.
I could bloviate about LMA all night - but I will limit myself to this: When people strike it rich, they tend to react one of two ways. Some people feel blessed by their good fortune and are generous and gracious to the folks around them. Others become arrogant, entitled, insecure, and jealous. The fact that the highest paid player on the team resented a team-mate getting an endorsement deal is pretty self-explanatory.
This is ultimately my answer to every FA question, but it's not fun to just say that over and over. Really nice having Olshey going forward. I'd hate sitting around wondering how someone like Morey was going to make the situation worse. Instead we get to wait and see what genius Olshey is hiding up his sleeve this time.
I don't know. I'm still not convinced that it was a personal issue with Dame, and not more of an overall issue where he felt like a castaway. I guess either way it's a moot point as neither of those mentalities personify what it means to be a Trail Blazer.
Well, wait, that's not really what we were talking about. You said that we essentially pushed him away because we were trying to make him into something he's not - a leader. I was trying to show that the team was doing what Aldridge said that he wanted - to be THE MAN. Whether or not that's what he actually wanted, or was comfortable with, was not the issue. He felt slighted because he felt like the team never held him in the same esteem as Roy/Oden or Lillard. They were constantly worried about offending his sensibilities. THAT was the issue. He's a diva. He's overly sensitive.
Come on Nate, read your own posts. Yes that was my initial statement. I still believe that they knew there could be a problem like this and to try and cut the head off they mistakenly made Aldridge "the face of the franchise", when really that's not what he wanted, he wanted exactly what he has in San Antonio. I think the FO misinterpreted what Aldridge truly wanted, which possibly speaks more to Aldridge's difficulties conveying what it was he wanted than negligence by the FO.
In those quotes I didn't say that there was a problem personally between Dame and LA, although some of the articles would actually support that there was. I was saying that Aldridge hated that other players got more attention than him. Dame was the most recent example of that. "That's not what he wanted, he wanted exactly what he has in San Antonio." I mean.... that's a nice theory, but the facts don't back it up. if Aldridge was uncomfortable with leadership, or being the face of the franchise, he would have been happy that Dame was taking some of the spotlight off of him. He wasn't. One example was in that Oregonian article, "The Blazers were so concerned with Aldridge's sensitivity of feeling overlooked that it sent a memo to the marketing department. All commercial and publicity projects were to first run through Aldridge. When the NBA Cares commercial came through Portland this year, Aldridge turned down the opportunity. So second choice went to Damian Lillard, who did the shoot. Once it aired nationally throughout NBA broadcasts, Aldridge became chaffed and took it as another example of Lillard being the franchise's darling." That excerpt directly contradicts your theory.
Woj is a pretty good source for breaking transactions and rumors. But his editorial pieces are pretty biased/targeted and he's been known to play favorites when churning out stories.....
But it wasn't just Woj. There were multiple articles from multiple sources. Hell, you could just look at the guy and see that he was quiet and introverted and slightly brooding. When these articles came out, things made a lot more sense to me.
All I am saying is that I don't really read into Woj's editorial pieces because he's extremely biased. He hated KP and hates LeBron with a passion. Injects himself too much into the articles. There was definitely something of a weird dynamic with LMA and Lillard. You don't need someone to write an article on it to tell. But it was still probably overblown and not as serious as it looked.
