Damian Lillard Wants Playoff Assurances for Portland

Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has raised some valid questions about the return of the NBA and elite sport in general. 

The 5-time All-Star point guard says he won’t participate if his team doesn’t have a shot at making the playoffs. 

It’s still unclear in what form the NBA will return. We can be fairly sure that it will take place in one or two quarantined facilities. But will the regular season pick up where it left off, or will the NBA go straight to the playoffs?

Damian Lillard and his fellow pros can expect clarification on this on 01 June, when the league will issue guidelines. It’s easy to paint his comments as entitled. However, amidst a pandemic, if he has nothing to play for, why should he play?

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“If we come back and they’re just like, ‘We’re adding a few games to finish the regular season,’ and they’re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don’t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I’m going to be with my team because I’m a part of the team,” Damian Lillard said.

“But I’m not going to be participating. I’m telling you that right now.”

Lillard is the 5th highest scorer in the NBA this season. His Portland team (29-37) is 3.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the final playoff spot in the West. It would be understandably galling if he was robbed of the chance to fight for that spot.

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“It’s going to be hard to get going with no fans. You’ve been off all this time and some people are just ready for summer like, ‘[Expletive] it, I haven’t played in a long time and the season is basically over to me. Do I really care like I cared before?’ It’s going to be a lot of those factors going on and that presents a lot of room for a team to sneak some [expletive]. 

“Like, really mess around and knock some teams off and then, ‘Oh, they’re in the Western Conference finals.’ It’s room for that with this situation. So the fact that it’s possible and we wouldn’t get an opportunity at that, that’s weak to me. I ain’t getting no younger.”