Of all the stories circulating around Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Micah Nori, perhaps none is funnier than the moment the would-be coach came face-to-face with franchise icon Damian Lillard in a job interview. Jason Quick of The Athletic relayed the anecdote as part of a larger post on Nori’s hiring [subscription required].
It was in June, during one of Nori’s interviews with the Blazers, when Nori was tasked with making a presentation of how he would run the Blazers. Plays. Substitution patterns.
Rotations. Lineup combinations. The Blazers wanted to hear his whole pitch.
Thirty minutes before the interview, general manager Joe Cronin informed Nori that Lillard, the star who will be returning to the team after missing last season rehabilitating his torn left Achilles, would be sitting in on the interview.
As the franchise’s all-time leading scorer listened, Nori gave his presentation, which included starting Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson at guard. Nori had not been given any inside information or health updates on Lillard, so he had Lillard coming off the bench and playing around 24 minutes.
The room went silent, until Lillard broke the tension.
“Huh,” Nori remembered Lillard saying. “Twenty-four minutes?”
Nori, who is hailed for his ability to connect with players using a joking and colloquial style, shot back.
“I haven’t seen you dribble in 14 months, b—-!” Nori remembered saying.
Later in the piece, Quick said that Nori and Lillard began to talk following that interview and at this point, they text nearly every day. Quick also relayed that Nori has assured Lillard that the superstar will start and finish games:
He told him he would start. And he told him at the end of games, he would be in his familiar spot: as the closer.
“I said I can promise you, that if you can walk, you will start,”
Quick also has Nori saying he’s not bothered by the talk concerning his now-infamous contract, that the coach has started the process of meeting with players, and that Nori plans to consider Portland’s incumbent staff and draw from outside the organization when assembling a coaching staff.
The interview is well worth a read.
