There Is A Better Chance Of The Planet Exploding Than There Is Of Damian Lillard Ever Leaving The Blazers

Adam Pantozzi. Getty Images.

When you think of the longest tenured active players in the NBA, who do you think of? There's Udonis Haslem who looks like he's about to start his 20th season with the Heat. He's basically an assistant coach that they can't actually move on from because of #HeatCulture and all that bullshit, so he doesn't really count in my opinion. There's Steph who is entering his 14th season with the Warriors. Giannis is entering his 10th season with the Bucks and Bradley Beal is entering his 11th season with the Wizards who just this past offseason signed this bad boy

And then there's Dame. Like Beal, he's entering his 11th season with the Blazers and also like Beal just signed a massive extension

Look at those numbers! I don't care what the salary cap ends up being in 2026-27, that number is going to be at least like 40% of it I bet. For example, it's at $123M this year with the luxury tax being at $150M and the tax apron coming in at $156M. It's honestly only a matter of time before we see someone getting $100M right? A 36 year old Dame at $63M is fucking insane, but also goes to show that being loyal (and one of the best point guards in the NBA) can be pretty lucrative

I'll say this about Dame. He not only talks the talk about staying in Portland forever

but he then walks the walk. He hasn't demanded a trade no matter how shitty the situation might be. He's refuted every single report that seems to come out despite Dame being open time and time again about not asking out. Remember that "report" that said he was willing to give back money on his guaranteed deal in order to be traded? You can't even do that! 

Every trade deadline or offseason we seem to get those same "rumors" and every time we see Dame agree to a new extension to stay in Portland. That's not exactly something you see in today's NBA and the RINNGZZZZZ culture that exists. Just look at what is currently going on in the league with guys demanding trades to superteams with 3-4 years left on their deals. Yet when you look at the last two NBA champions, you see franchises that didn't really go this route. Their loyal superstar reached the top of the mountain. Maybe that's the start of a trend that I think we can all get behind.

This all brings up an interesting debate. On one hand, fans KILL the best players when they decide they need to leave their team and join a stacked roster in an effort to win a title. Everything about their basketball legacy is crushed when that happens. Then, on the other hand, you have people who say that Dame cares more about money than winning since he refuses to leave POR and join a team that has a chance to actually win the whole thing. 

So which is it? The best players should ring hunt, but only if it's to a team that is only kind of stacked and not a superteam? Who decides the levels of "stackedness"? Or, if that star player decides to stay with the only franchise he's ever known and is paid an insane amount to do so even if there isn't a clear path to a title, he doesn't care about winning? Seems like a situation where people just want to complain and slander regardless of what happens. That's a bit exhausting. 

I keep going back to what Dame said about this very topic 3 years ago

Who could possibly hate on that? Isn't Dame's mindset the exact thing fans say they want from superstars? That they don't want these guys to run from the grind or look for the easiest path possible for a ring? Hasn't Durant been slandered in the internet for the past 3-4 years for doing that exact thing? For my money we need more Dame's. We need guys like Duncan, Ginobli, Dirk, Kobe, etc in this next generation and Dame is doing exactly that. If he ever somehow wins a title in Portland? It's be like Dirk's 2011 title on steroids. If it never happens? Whatever. Dame is still on his way to becoming a first ballot HOF player. He's already in the NBA's Top 75 all time. He's probably going to make well over half a billion dollars from basketball contract money alone. I think he'll be OK. There are plenty of all time legends that have never won an NBA title, even ones that tried to ring chase. If that's what ends up happening with Dame, something tells me he'll be just fine.

As a Blazers fan, this extension would of course have me over the moon. While we should never say a contract is untradeable, I can't imagine teams are going to be lining up to pay an aging Dame over $50M a year so chances are this solidifies him staying in Portland until he officially hangs it up. Does that mean the Dame rumors will stop? Hell no. That shit brings in the clicks. If the Blazers start off slow, you'll hear the same rumblings we get every single season. 

But when it comes to Dame, it's pretty clear that those are always going to just be rumblings created for ratings/pageviews and nothing more.