Photo Credit: Soobum Im – USA TODAY Sports
Loyalty is a dying art in the world of sports. Players like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki are the last breed of NBA stars to never “jump ship” and leave when their team is not performing up to par. The ability to remain a part of a losing team is something only the best can do; not particularly skill wise, but mentally.
Dirk Nowitzki holds the league record for most seasons played with one team, and his loyalty and the loyalty Dallas gave back to Dirk is something Damian Lillard draws inspiration from.
But this isn’t the only thing the two see eye-to-eye. A few years back, Nowitzki said that he believes the modern NBA is more about money and rings than anything, and Damian Lillard now doubled down on Dirk’s statement during an appearance on JJ Redick’s ‘The Old Man And The Three’ podcast. Lillard said that the NBA he came into is different than today’s NBA, but for the worse.
“The NBA I play in now, is not the NBA I came into. I play for the love of the game; I want the competition. I want to know what it feels like to win. I want to see my teammates do well… I enjoy the bonding part of it. Now it’s like… regular season don’t count. Get a ring… What is this?”
“I was talking after a game like a week ago. They was asking me about “Dame, but like to win a ring?”. Bro, I don’t need to prove to y’all that I want to win a ring. Why the hell do I play?… I understand we play to win championships… we can’t keep acting like nothing matters, the rest of the stuff, the journey doesn’t matter.”
.@Dame_Lillard speaks on the culture within the league and the discourse around it.
Full episode with @jj_redick and @talter drops 3/15. https://t.co/j1C3BwgOrG pic.twitter.com/DhVIx7jDIk
— TheOldMan&TheThree (@OldManAndThree) March 14, 2023
