Former lottery pick slams Damian Lillard, NBA stars over trade demands

Mar 10, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Damian Lillard has most fans torn over his trade request after a decade of loyalty to the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard’s 2012 NBA Draft classmate Austin Rivers made his stance on the trade request — he’s not a fan.

On a recent episode of the “Off Guard with Austin Rivers” podcast, the Duke product was asked by co-host Pausha Haghighi to discuss what Lillard’s trade demand means for the Blazers guard’s legacy (22:27 mark).

Rivers lamented how Lillard has supposedly turned his back on being “the poster boy” for team loyalty after championing the ideology for years. Rivers then went on to criticize the reports that Lillard won’t suit up for a team he doesn’t want to play for.

“Regardless of how good of a player you are, the NBA is a privilege,” said Rivers. “If you’re a free agent, then you can choose where you are gonna go. That’s the business. But when you’re not and you sign a deal, man. That’s part of the business, bro. If you get traded somewhere, you’ve got to go play.

“This started with like James [Harden] and Ben [Simmons] and all these guys doing this s–t. It’s bad for the league. … It’s a scary dynamic when stars start acting like this. I’m not a big fan of it, to be honest with you. And I’m a big fan of Dame.”

There are two sides to the debate.

As Rivers pointed out, players are bound by the contracts they sign. The NBA is a business and its players should play for whichever team holds their contract. And if Lillard were unsure about how long he wanted to play for Portland, he shouldn’t have signed a long-term deal with them.

On the other hand, Lillard has given the Blazers season after season to try and build a contender around him, but the team is headed more for rebuild-mode rather than contention. Dame’s camp is hoping the team repays their star for his years of loyalty by sending him to his preferred destination, the Miami Heat.

For the Blazers, it’s one thing to acquiesce to a trade request, but it’s another to be forced to send the guard to one specific team, which limits the kind of return they would receive.