Gut feeling
Damian Lillard, one of the greatest players ever to wear a Portland Trail Blazer uniform, underwent surgery in Philadelphia yesterday. It wasn't for your classic basketball injury, like a knee or a foot. It was to alleviate some sort of problem with his abdominal core. Apparently he'd been suffering from this condition for years.
No one really knows for sure how long he'll be sidelined. The last game he played in was on New Year's Eve. I've heard that it will be two months before he returns, but I've also heard that he's finished for the season.
Part of me wonders whether Lillard will ever play again for the Blazers. Last summer he asked for a stronger roster around him, and the team gave him the finger. Now he's been playing under a coach who knows less about the game than he does. Even when they're healthy, the team has slipped from having potential to heading for the cellar in the standings.
On the face of things, Lillard has been extremely loyal to Portland, but his career is not going to last forever, and the absentee owner and her late brother's minions are never going to put Dame in contention for a championship. He deserves better, and I suspect he'll ask for it, if he hasn't already.
Meanwhile, the Blazers lost by 32 in Denver last night, humiliated on national television. Their record is 16-25, 10th out of 15 teams in the West. Their record on the road is 2-14, worst in the league. The very worst team in the West has an overall record of 12-31, five games behind Portland.
I wish Dame a speedy and complete recovery, and a spectacular new phase to his career. Wherever it is.
16-25? That reminds me of the old, old days when the Blazers first came into the league and they played the same teams over and over. Of course the NBA was not what it is now, but the Blazers have had ‘some’ winning teams since 1977. I doubt that we will see one anytime soon. Ask yourself this.......if you were a big name free agent would you want to come here? Forget stuff like the weather or the nightlife, this town has no upside right now. None.
ReplyDeleteIt didn’t have to be this way though. All self-inflicted and totally avoidable. At this point I wouldn’t even care if they moved. Let them play in a town that is going somewhere, except in the dumps.
He'd look fetching in purple and gold.
ReplyDelete