If Damian Lillard never plays another game for the Portland Trail Blazers, he has a strong case as the best player in franchise history. It’s either him or Clyde Drexler. The man has been a no-headache, Hall of Fame player and arguably an even better ambassador for both the Blazers and the league as a whole. Nobody is suggesting otherwise. Damian Lillard is, and has been, freaking great.
But can we please stop acting like the Blazers owe Lillard the world? They’ve paid the guy more than $233 million in career cash. And have signed up to pay him just shy of half a billion — yes, half a billion — should he decide to stay through his current fully guaranteed contract that is set to line his pockets with $45.6M, $48.8M, $58.5M and $63.2M over the next four seasons, respectively.
No matter where he finishes this contract, Lillard is guaranteed to be one of the highest-earning players in NBA history. I think the Blazers are sufficiently square.
And yet, this notion persists that the Blazers remain indebted, that they owe it to Lillard to take some fifty-cents-on-the-dollar deal so he can go to his “preferred destination.” Seriously. A lot of people really believe this. I’m not making this up.
These people, they make it like Lillard has been doing charity work for the past 11 seasons, and now it’s time to finally give the man his due. I’ll repeat: Damian Lillard has made more money than just about any player who’s ever laced up a pair of sneakers in the NBA.
Yes, Lillard earned that money. The Blazers didn’t give anything to him. But you know who did give Lillard, and every other player with an NBA contract, that money? The fans. You know, the people who can’t afford to take their kids to games because it’s so damn expensive but do it anyway? The people paying out the nose for cable packages, which translates to what some anticipate could be a $75 billion television deal in a couple of years?
Yeah, those people. They are the reason Damian Lillard is going to make well over half a billion dollars, in salary alone, by the…
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