Portland Trail Blazers talisman Damian Lillard is considered one of the top rated NBA stars. Dame Dolla is mostly known for his exceptional ball-handling and great long range shooting. He is often compared with the likes of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and others. Despite being a great player, Lillard is yet to win a Championship.
Over the years Lillard has received offers from different franchises in the NBA. But he has never left Portland as he always wanted to hustle and take the team to the Championship. But recently things have not gone his way as the franchise allowed a lot of quality players to leave the team. It left Lillard completely alone and shorthanded.
Dame Dolla recently sat down with Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast to discuss on several topics in and around the sport. The discussion was around the ‘new era’ of players who in their aim to win the NBA Championship have moved out of their current teams.
Sharpe describes it as a player empowerment movement. When he quizzed Lillard on the same issue of players leaving franchises to win Championship. Lillard feels it is based on personal choices.
Lillard comes up with a response “to each his own.” He shares that if the player feels nice and comfortable in moving away from his current team to join another then they should gladly go for it.
“To each his own. If that’s what feels fine for you and makes you happy, I think you should do it.” Lillard responded. “Bron has won a championship everywhere he’s done it at. He even circled back to Cleveland and won the championship. KD the same, you know, he went to Golden State, he won his two. To each his own.”
The search for a Championship ring has been of prime importance to many players. The NBA Championship allows them to come more in the limelight to show their abilities. Many players over the years have joined top teams to seek for the title or have rather stayed on and forced the management to get a better supporting cast for them in their bid for the NBA title. This has been the norm in the new age in comparison to the earlier times when players were held on by the teams until they were traded or later let go by franchises.
Lillard highlighted how these things have worked for LeBron James and Kevin Durant who have joined different teams and have won the NBA Championships. He shared how LeBron has won titles everywhere he has gone whereas KD won two titles when he joined the Golden State Warriors.
