Stephen Curry (right) talks with Damian Lillard after the Warriors eliminated the Blazers from the 2016 NBA playoffs. (AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Kevin Durant’s offseason move to the Golden State Warriors has inspired several fresh round of commentary on the psychologies of players who opt to join and form superteams. While there are plenty of good reasons to question what such moves do to the competitive landscape of the NBA, many of the responses have been so extreme as to seem like acts of projection. It seems unlikely that so many people would be unable to empathize with Durant’s point of view and reasoning even if they disagreed with it. Surely we have all felt the desire to take the path of least resistance, especially if it seems like a lot of fun.
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Naturally, many former players who never had the opportunity to join superteams have criticized Durant for his decision just as they did with LeBron James in 2010. For the most part, though, today’s stars have been pretty quiet on the subject or offered vague comments regarding KD’s ability to do whatever he wants. That makes sense, because they too could have the opportunity to join up with other All-Stars some day and don’t want to rue their words several years from now.
Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is apparently willing to risk it. The two-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection was interviewed on SiriusXM’s NBA Radio on Monday and had this to say about whether he’d opt to play with several other stars on another team (transcript via PBT):
“If somebody wants to go join people and do that, it’s not against the rules. They can do it. It’s just more pressure to win when you do it. Some people say, ‘Oh, they had to do that to win it,’ but we play the game to win it. So when people do it, that’s their decision. I wouldn’t do it. That’s just not who I am.
“I might have too much pride for that or be too much of a competitor where I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but it also makes it more fun. You get to take a monster down and that’s always fun.”
It would be smart to take Lillard at his word. The Oakland native has gained a deserved reputation as a fierce competitor who takes every slight as intense motivation to prove people wrong. He really does have a surplus of pride and would seem an odd fit for a Warriors-type superteam that shares the superstar responsibility. Lillard has welcomed the challenge of bringing the Blazers back to contention. He’s not one to avoid a serious challenge.
Of course, Lillard is also entering his fifth season and the first year of a five-year max-level extension that he agreed to in the summer of 2015. For that matter, the Blazers are a team on the rise. He has no reason to leave the team that drafted him and believed in him. He’s in a dream situation.
It’s quite possible that Lillard will hold a different opinion in 2020, when he’ll be 31 years old and have the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent. If Portland’s path to contention does not go as planned and Lillard begins to count the years he has left, it would be entirely reasonable for him to decide to join a better team in the interest of winning. After all, Durant occupied a very similar role in the NBA landscape when LeBron James moved to Miami in 2010, and look where he is now.

It’s very possible that Lillard will hold to his word. But his comments will mean very little until the option of joining a superteam is actually available to him.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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