Damian Lillard, who became legendary with the Portland Trail Blazers, will now wear the Milwaukee Bucks jersey. How did we get to this point, what will happen next and are we ready for this change?
There were many question marks about the famous star who was born in Oakland in 1990.
This year, on one of the quietest days of the season, among the questions of whether there will be a trade, whether loyalty is meaningful or is this stupidity anymore, why he shouldn't go to another team to win a ring, but isn't it a stance that he doesn't go, Damian Lillard told ESPN. gave an interview. Just in February 2023... He was undecided about his future. Yes, he wanted to win a ring. On the other hand, he was curious. Does not being a champion reduce my value? Dame gave the example of Charles Barkley and said he didn't understand why people were talking so much about Barkley just because he doesn't have a ring. Would the same thing happen to him?
Damian Lamonte Ollie "Dame" Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned third-team All-American honors in 2012. After being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Lillard was unanimously voted the NBA Rookie of the Year. Nicknamed Dame Time for his history of making big shots in the clutch, he has received seven NBA All-Star and seven All-NBA Team selections, the only player in Trail Blazers franchise history to do so. In October 2021, Lillard was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He also won a gold medal on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo.
Then, with the help of ESPN writer Baxter Holmes, he entered the tunnel of the past. 11 photographs representing the club's history hung in the corridors of Moda Center. Lillard was in the lead role in three of those shots. The 2014 Houston Rockets series was the first, where the Dame Time phenomenon was announced to the planet. Lillard came out of the right corner, took advantage of a double screen, and hit a stunning last-second three-pointer with 0.9 seconds remaining. Another was the long-distance three-pointer that ended the 2019 Oklahoma City Thunder series. Lillard crossed the midfield, looking at Paul George's face, took a step to his right, and sent that unforgettable shot into the basket. His third photo was from December 2022. A photo from the day Lillard passed Clyde Drexler and became the top scorer in the club's history.
All of these moments were unforgettable. But Lillard had something different in mind, according to what he said in the interview. He was looking with envy at the two different photographs he saw in those corridors. One is a shot of Drexler from the 1992 NBA Finals. The other is a photo from the 1977 celebrations. Dame represented Portland, which had its golden age in the 70s and did respectable work in the 90s, in the 21st century. But he wanted more. The West Final was the highest point he could reach. He dreamed of the beyond, the ring, and immortality.
The end of the era for the Portland Trail Blazers came with a rap song. On September 28, 2023, Lillard closed an era when he shared his song Farewell. Well, he had already been accepting farewell messages for a few hours. The moment Adrian Wojnarowski shared the news that Lillard was traded to the Bucks shook the NBA deeply. On the one hand, it was wondered how the trade allegations focusing on the Heat evolved to such a direction, and the involvement of the Bucks in the process was discussed.
Lillard had this possibility in the back of his mind. Dame requested a trade at the end of the 2022-2023 season when Portland took the third pick in the draft lottery and decided to keep the player they selected from there. Trail Blazers, who extended a two-year contract with Lillard in 2022, tied the legend to 2026-2027. But, again, we can only guess, but both sides were aware of the possibility of separation when they signed that agreement. Mutual thanks, speeches of loyalty, dreams of rings were flying in the air, but there was a huge elephant in the room. Both sides denied that elephant. The decision was finally made after the new CBA, or collective bargaining agreement, was signed and it became even more difficult to form superteams.
In summary, the ending of the movie was clear. So how to get to that end? Trail Blazers management, led by Joe Cronin, was open to negotiations. Although the Lillard camp pointed to the Heat, Portland was planning to oppose this imposition. They also leaked this to the media. In their opinion, an offer based on Tyler Herro and three first-round draft picks was inadequate. That's why his meetings with Heat management didn't go well. They were addressing the league with the news they spread on ESPN. Their doors were open for offers.
Heat negotiations reached such a point that NBA management had to intervene and tell Lillard's agent, Aaron Goodwin, "Don't prevent teams from making offers for Lillard." Rumor has it that the famous manager was looking for clubs that might be interested in Lillard and gave the message, "He only wants to go to the Heat." On the other hand, Portland management had cut ties with Miami. Things were about to come to a dead end before the new season started. Then, in mid-September, first the Toronto Raptors entered this market, followed by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Ultimately, Lillard could not go to the club he wanted, but he had the chance to play with a superstar who was better than him.
On the other hand, the way the process went was unusual for a player like Lillard who wanted to do things differently.
Now a new world is being established and Lillard has found a place for himself in it. He is now a member of the most consistent team of the last five seasons. The most important thing is the harmony between Giannis and his games on paper. The Greek star has always needed space and now the center
The 2023-2024 NBA season will be very different in one respect. Because last year, everything was ready when Lillard was named among the NBA's 75 greatest players of all time. The Dame was about to turn into a statue. Not like a star who lives, plays, sweats for the ring; he seemed like a phenomenon caught in an endless spiral with Portland. We weren't going to talk about him in the present tense. It was now part of the photographs. “Will he stay or will he go?” We were going to discuss the issue and talk about Portland's focus on young people while giving contracts to players like Jerami Grant. Lillard would continue to play like one of the best in the world and would run the team out of contention at one point in the season.
Things changed suddenly. Now, Dame isn't just a part of the past. From now on, he will be a regular leading man on a big stage, something he has never experienced in his career. He will do this in a strong squad, but these are completely different waters... Dame, who said in one of his songs, "Let not joining the super teams be my Achilles heel, I want to go to the top alone where Giannis and Dirk are," may not have been able to find his 1977 season with a Portland jersey, but The search will continue. Besides, he no longer has to go up that hill alone. There will be someone next to you who has breathed that air before.