Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesDamian Lillard may want a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers, but not if that means heading to Golden State.
The All-Star guard said he would rather lose every year than join the Warriors' established dynasty.
"I respect what they've been doing over the last eight, nine years or whatever, and I'm from there obviously. That's home. But I can't go be a part of that," Lillard said (53-minute mark) on It Is What It Is. "They won four championships. What I look like going to try to do that?
"... It don't even make sense. I'd never do nothing like that. I'd lose every year before I go."
Given Lillard's well-publicized flirtation with the Miami Heat, it's hard to find much sense in what he's saying.
The Heat have been to the NBA Finals two times since 2020; the Warriors have gone once. Miami's missed the playoffs just four times in the last 20 years. There may be no more stable or well-run organization in all of basketball than the Heat—Warriors included.
While one could point out the Heat lost both of those Finals appearances and the Warriors have four titles since Steph Curry's arrival, it's hard to jump through the logic hoops necessary to say you'd never join one superteam while pushing behind the scenes to join another team that just made the Finals.
When discussing Kevin Durant, Lillard said he wouldn't have made the jump from Oklahoma City to Golden State in 2016.
"If I was in his shoes, I wouldn't have done that personally," Lillard said. "I feel like that was a team they lost to. I think they won [the championship] once before he got there. That ain't something that I would have did."
Logically speaking, it's fair to wonder if what Lillard is doing is more worthy of criticism than Durant's actions. Durant was a free agent. He played out his contract in Oklahoma City. By contrast, Lillard signed a two-year contract extension in July 2022 and asked for a trade less than a year later.
After years of sending out public messaging that he would never request a trade and always wanted to stay in Portland, Lillard's had a hard time finding a consistent message since requesting a trade in July.
It's hard to blame Lillard for the request given the trajectory of the Blazers roster, but it's probably time to give up on the public declarations of being different from other superstars who have hopped teams for titles in the past.
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