Photo Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Damian Lillard To Sit Out Rest Of The Season If Blazers Don’t Have ‘True Opportunity’ To Make Playoffs

The Portland Trail Blazers have been one of the most disappointing teams of this NBA season. While they have improved after an awful start, they are still nowhere near anyone would have seen them prior to the season.

Currently sitting at the 9th spot in the Western Conference, three and a half games behind the Memphis Grizzlies, the chances for the Blazers to reach the playoffs, if the regular season were to come back in a shortened format, are relatively slim.

This is why Damian Lillard revealed that if the NBA brings back every team in the league to play a few regular season games before heading into a playoff format, he won’t play.

Per Yahoo Sports:

“If we come back and they’re just like, ‘We’re adding a few games to finish the regular season,’ and they’re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don’t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I’m going to be with my team because I’m a part of the team. But I’m not going to be participating. I’m telling you that right now. And you can put that [expletive] in there.”

It is understandable that the NBA is trying to hit the 70 game regular season mark for every team to satisfy regional television contracts. It also is understandable that Lillard does not want to put himself at risk by playing games that won’t change the outcome of his team’s season. This is just one of the many problems the NBA is currently facing, when debating about a return in whichever format.