The Lakers are in 8th place, literally five-hundred, and have a chance to make the playoffs. Not the play-in, that special honor that gives every team in the NBA a golden ribbon just for trying, but the playoffs. That means they have a chance to win a championship. I am not saying this is going to happen. If someone made me bet, I would bet against it, but when it comes down to it, I can’t bet against my purple and gold — go Lakers!!
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Hope you enjoy this week’s thoughts on Damian Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard.
Dame Time: Props to dame. Just props. Seriously props seriously props Dame Lillard, one of my favorite players. Full stop. I can take you back to the shot, which my wife has heard me immortalize in vocabularic terms since he drained it over Paul George, that thirty-seven foot buzzer beater that stunned the NBA and sent the Oklahoma City Thunder packing in the 2020 playoffs — exactly one year before the pandemic. The point is it was a shot that destroyed Paul George, cemented Lillard’s rep, and became immortalized on a hot pink tee shirt that I created from scratch. The moment is so immortal that at least two times when I have worn the shirt people have complimented me on it. *send me a message and i’ll send you a pic of the shirt ;)
BUT
Should point guard Dame Lillard continue to play for the Portland Trail Blazers, the only team he has ever played for in the NBA, after the 2022/2023 season, or move on to another team? Should he do what all other players of his stature and magnitude do when they are playing for a shitty team, year after year.
Should he FINALLY go play with Lebron?
LeBron James sort of started this player movement stuff for our era, but it’s not exactly revolutionary. The best players, from Kareem to Baron Davis (in 2004!), want to win, and winning is something that happens when your teams are, well, competent.
Teams ABSOLUTELY have a responsibility when they have an All-Time Great Player like Lillard. They should at least be mediocre to give a player like Dame Lillard a shot at at championship. UNFORTUNATELY the Portland Trailblazers have been the complete opposite of mediocre these last couple of years. Sure, they had some high-points way back when on those Dame Lillard/CJ McCollum teams, but as fun as it was to watch those teams, they weren’t exactly getting deep into the playoffs or anything like that. Season after season after season, Dame Lillard has been on a Portland Trail Blazers team that has been incapable of putting the right pieces around him to climb Mt. Rushmore, ala the Golden State Warriors < Steph Curry.
Which brings me back to my point. Despite all of this failure, Lillard has been nothing but a class act. He has consistently stayed out of the vexing business of superstar trade demands, you know, those things Star Players do when they are tired of losing and want to move to Miami.
Dame isn’t leaving Portland and running to the sunnier skies of Los Angeles, or the beaches of Miami, or the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. He’s in Portland, a “small market,” and has done nothing but play the part of a consummate professional. In a world of late stage capitalism where people would cut their own fingers off to be successful, there’s something to be said for that kind of loyalty, commitment, and class.
Till next weeeeeeeeeeeK