It’s been a weird summer for the Portland Trail Blazers, especially when it comes to their backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. While neither guy has demanded a trade or anything like that, there have been plenty of people questioning whether the Blazers should press the reset button after their first round exit from the postseason — there’s even been a rumor that the Phoenix Suns kicked the tires on a trade for Lillard.
These rumblings have been quelled by general manager Neil Olshey saying he wants to keep the team’s core together, and even more so by Lillard’s public declaration that he loves being in Portland. In fact, Lillard is so content with how things are going that he is already talking about how happy he’d be to stay with the team until the day he retires.
Lillard spoke to Michael Scotto of The Athletic about being a Blazer for life, and went on to say that he’d view it as an honor.
“That would be an honor to be a lifetime Blazer,” Lillard said to The Athletic. “Not a lot of guys get to play for one organization for their entire career. Obviously, I love playing for the Blazers. I love living in the city. I feel like I’ve established a connection with the people and the culture of the city just as much as I’ve done on the basketball court, so that’s important. But, as we know, it’s a business and a lot of times organizations have other plans, and sometimes players change their stance on that. But to be a lifetime Blazer, that would be great. I’m all on board for it.”
As the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, so who knows if this ends up happening — Lillard even alluded to the fact that plans can change. Still, this is probably the exact thing Blazers fans want to hear out of Lillard, who is under contract with the team until 2021.
(Via The Athletic)
