An era ends in Portland

Damian Lillard reportedly requests a trade

BY HENRY ABBOTT and DAVID THORPE

“Portland did a great fucking job. He’s one of the top number six picks of all time. He’s had an absolutely legendary career. The fans and the city should be proud.” RICH SCHULTZ/GETTY IMAGES

HENRY: David, you wrote a story that we published recently about, you know, the young teams, and it just struck me this Lillard thing—he’s a wonderful player. He has been the definition of the Blazer franchise for so long. But he’s keeping them from joining your list.

And it’s that old thing as a fan: do you want to be on a path to a championship, or are you comfortable where you are? 

Because of the way the salary cap works, my thought is that post-Dame, the Blazers get a shot to join your list. And it might be hurtful today to Blazer fans, but I feel like over the next half decade, it’s going to be so much more fun than if they’d kept Lillard.

DAVID: This is what you’ve been writing about for a long time and certainly a lot recently—your love of Damian Lillard—and fe…