Much has been made about different NBA stars teaming up with other NBA stars over the course of the last few seasons to create so-called "super teams" designed to take over the league. From LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Boshteaming up with the Heat in 2011 to Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Greenteaming up with the Warriors in 2016, the super team trend doesn’t appear as though it’s going to go away anytime soon.
But one player who you won’t see joining a super team in the near future is Damian Lillard. The Trail Blazers point guard appeared on Everyday Struggle on Wednesday, and he told Nadeska, DJ Akademiks, and Joe Budden that he’s not planning on leaving Portland to team up with other stars. He will try and bring in talent to play alongside him—he mentioned trying to recruit Carmelo Anthony to come to Portland—but as far as leaving his current teammates behind to play elsewhere with a super team? It’s not for him, and he would rather not win an NBA title than go about winning one that way.
"I’m not joining nobody," he said. "I would not win a championship before I go and team up and do all that. Unless it was something I couldn’t control. I’m saying this because this is how I feel, not how I feel at the moment. That’s just how I feel about it. I think if that’s what somebody wants to do, I’m not mad at them for doing it. I’m just telling you what I’m not going to do. That ain’t how we get down."
Lillard did go on to say that he didn’t want to come across as being critical of guys like LeBron and KD who have gone the super team route at some point in their careers. But at the same time, he stressed it simply isn't an option for him.
"If it make them feel good, if they comfortable doing it, then do you," he said.
At 27, Lillard still has plenty of life left in his career. So he could conceivably change his mind on this in the future and decide that winning a title supersedes his previous thoughts on super teams. But for now, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be a part of a super team during any of the upcoming NBA seasons.
