The Portland Trail Blazers aren’t among the NBA’s best teams, and Damian Lillard could have gone elsewhere to continue his career following his being waived by the Milwaukee Bucks
. By returning home to Portland, Lillard showed that basketball business decisions can be informed as much by things like family and a sense of place as it can by things like maximizing profit or winning a ring.John Voita, Managing Editor for Bright Side of the Sun, outlines how Lillard is setting an example for the rest
of the league and compares Dame’s experience in Portland to how guard Devin Booker has spent his entire career with the Phoenix Suns:
I’m a Devin Booker loyalist. Not a Stan. There’s a difference. I’ll criticize aspects of his game. His “I’m chillin’” demeanor can be maddening. I question what his true ceiling is, especially when the stakes rise. But I remain loyal to him because he’s been loyal to this team. It’s the fan in me. I know I am biased, and I’m not afraid to say it. He’s endured every iteration of heartbreak and hope, stuck with the franchise through dysfunction and reinvention. And in today’s NBA, that means something...
...When I see Damian Lillard return to Portland, I don’t feel frustration. I feel understanding. It makes sense. The Blazers want their guy back. He wants to be where he’s comfortable, where his roots are. And honestly, why not? In a league obsessed with movement, there’s something grounding about a player finding his way home.
He then goes on to ask fans how they connect with their team, and whether maximizing a team’s chance winning should be the only straw that stirs the drink of fandom:
How do you engage with this team? What fills your cup as a fan? If you enter a season knowing a championship likely isn’t coming, would you rather ride it out with a player who’s still there, still trying, still wearing your colors with pride? Someone who can still perform at an All-Star level? Or are you more of a cap sheet purist, where if the numbers don’t line up, it’s time to hit reset, move off contracts, and roll the dice with youth and flexibility? From my perspective, there’s no heart in the latter. No poetry. It’s purely transactional. And that’s the thing. I prefer interactional over transactional. Every time...
...Would you rather have his loyalty through the losing? That’s what Portland is doing with Damian Lillard. And if it came to that, I’d do the same in Phoenix.
Personally, the Damian Lillard experience in Portland has made me realize that as a fan of a sports team - and as a competitive person - that yes, winning matters. It’s also taught me that it’s way, WAY more fun to root for a person that you like and respect, and who likes and respects your city and your hometown team, than it is to have a bunch of mercenaries.
I’m not saying that I’d rather the Blazers be a 25-game-a-year cellar dweller with Lillard than win a title with a cobbled-together team of good-to-great players who have no meaningful connection to Portland and Oregon. As with all things, it’s a spectrum and there’s probably a balance in there somewhere.
But as Voita hints at, that balance - for me anyway - definitely includes being competitive and winning playoff series. Dame has delivered that.
And I wouldn’t trade the years we had and WILL have with Dame for a ring without a player that I feel good rooting for.
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