A Day Late & A Dolla Short

Damian Lillard was on JJ Redick’s podcast recently where he touched on a variety of topics in the hour long video. There was a few things that caught my eye about the interview.

As you know, a lot of the podcasters break down their shows into pieces for clickbaits and for the extra added revenue. There’s a video titled, “Damian Lillard On Why He Believes The NBA Is Changing For The Worse” that I want to focus on today.

JJ Redick asks him what has changed about the league from when the time he came in back in 2012 to where we are right now. Lillard gives the question some thought and then says:

“When I came into the the league, Jason Kidd was starting for the Knicks and Grant Hill and Kurt Thomas, you know. It was like real older dudes in the league.”

He goes on to mention that he played with Jared Jeffries and he was 40–41 years old or something. Now we have to do some fact-checking right here. First and foremost, Jared Jeffries was a teammate of his when Lillard was a rookie but Jeffries was not 40-41 at the time.

Matter of fact, he turned 41 years old back in November of last year so that means he was actually 31 years old at the time when he played with Damian Lillard.

It’s true that Kidd (40) was the starting point guard of the Knicks who had a veteran-laden team which also included Kurt Thomas (40) and Kenyon Martin (35).

The Knicks had the oldest team in the league that year by average age. Grant Hill, who was also 40 years old, was with the Clippers at the time. During the 2012–2013 NBA season, the league had 23 players that were 35 years old or older on a NBA roster. This year that number is 19.

Now call me crazy but there’s not much difference between 19–23. Matter of fact, the practice of players playing deep into their 30’s and into their 40’s is a relatively, new concept.

In 1989, there were only 5 players that were 35 and older. In the 1976 NBA season, it was 3 and in the 1967 season, there was only 1 player so that means the idea of the wiley-eyed vet had to be looked at differently when it came to age in those times.

I would say that the 35 and up trend started in the mid 90’s and grew on as time went on. The NBA keeps a list of the oldest teams, the biggest teams and the average age of the league on their website.

According to them, the league in the year 2000 was the oldest the league had ever been since they began keeping track of those stats in the late 1980’s.

So my next question to Lillard would be, what the fuck are you talking about?! It seems to me that he’s spewing that same bullshit that the likes of Charles Barkley and a lot of these other “tv characters” have been spewing out there, unchecked by the way, for the past 25 years and better.

He goes to mention “entitlement” which is nothing new also. The late Bill Russell used to say that people often look at athletes as a pretty girl meaning that they want their athletes to be seen and not heard. I might add that Russell was drafted in 1956.

Lillard talks about how much more money the top 6 players in the NBA draft make today compared to other eras which is true. But he failed to mention that the reason why they make more is because the players as a whole make a lot more money today then they did when he was a rookie.

He also didn’t mention the rookie wage scale that was implemented in the late 90’s. Prior to that, rookies could actually negotiate their own contracts such as what Glenn Robinson did back in 1994. His entire contract was worth more then the Milwaukee Bucks was worth as a franchise at the time.

The contract was reportedly a 10 year contract worth 68 million dollars via source. I’m pretty sure that he was making more money then a lot of the vets were making at the time. Hell, he was probably making more money then a lot of the superstars of the league was making back then.

Shaquille O’Neal negotiated his own contract as well and was paid quite handsomely. So did any of these two athletes “earn their way” or did they take advantage of what the rules allowed them to do at the time?!

As far as Lillard saying that players are given the keys to the kingdom when they are drafted among the first 6 picks in the NBA, that has also always been the norm.

NBA teams have always been looking for a “Savior” from the Patrick Ewing “Frozen Envelope era” to even back when the Big Dipper (Wilt Chamberlain) was a prized rook in the 1959–1960 season.

I would sum up the rest of this part of the interview as Dame Lillard’s own “getoffmylawn” spiel. Everything he said about players only caring about numbers has long been the source of many topic since the league’s inception.

I believe this whole interview is his way of trying to control his narrative about his own decision to stick with the Trailblazers for the rest of his career.

He knows that he has a low percentage chance of winning there so I guess he wants to put down those players that chose to go elsewhere to pursue their championship aspirations.

His contemporaries didn’t want to end up like him playing for a mismanaged organization and f you don’t believe me, just look at all of the changes the Blazers have made and ask yourself this question. Have they gotten any better the last few seasons?

The answer would be a resounding NO! Lillard mentioned veterans earlier. They traded away his running mate, CJ McCollum and what did they get in return. Since he’s been a member of the organization, they’ve mainly been a one-and-done team in the playoffs.

They even ended up traded away their draft picks a few years ago. They were a below .500 team last season and they will be a below .500 team this season also as he continues to age.

Lillard is 32 years old and having an amazing statistical year so he’s not done but an athlete’s career can fly on by in a hurry. Shit! Life moves on by in a hurry and before you know it, just like an athlete’s career, it’s over in a flash. Better make the best of your remaining NBA years, Dame.

Points to my watch! Time is ticking, brah. Dame Time ain’t going to last forever.