Damian Lillard: 'I don't believe in the ring of bust thing'

Damian Lillard: I’ve done so much in my career that I know that I have a great body of work. I will feel that way with or without a championship ring, but the reason I play is for a championship ring. So, I don’t believe in the ring or bust thing, I’m not a fan of that, and that’s why I don’t play my career to that narrative. I’m not making every decision, like ‘Oh I should do this or I should do that to get a ring’, because knowing myself and knowing I feel in my heart and the way that I operate, I don’t think it would be as fulfilling or as great of a feeling as I imagine it’d being if I felt like I got beside myself or stepped outside of myself to try to accomplish that.
Source: reddit

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Sean Highkin @highkin
Not sure I understand the “This will lead to the Blazers trading Dame and rebuilding” line of thinking. They’d never trade him unless he asked for it, and to put it kindly I don’t think Neil Olshey’s departure will make him want to leave more. In fact likely the opposite effect. – 7:45 PM Aaron J. Fentress @AaronJFentress
Anfernee Simons is out for the Boston game along with Damian Lillard and Nassir Little. pic.twitter.com/1KJ2uEJsKi – 6:45 PM

Jamie Hudson @JamieHudson_
Blazers Injury Report:
Anfernee Simons (right ankle sprain), Damian Lillard (abdominal tendinopathy – injury management) and Nassir Little (left ankle sprain) are out for Saturday’s game at Boston. – 6:36 PM Casey Holdahl @CHold
Anfernee Simons (right ankle sprain) joins Damian Lillard (abdominal tendinopathy – injury management) and Nassir Little (left ankle sprain) as out for Saturday’s game versus Boston. – 6:36 PM David Locke @DLocke09
4 of the top 10 plpayers in the NBA with the most off the dribble three point shot attempts this season are shooting below 30% on those shots – Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Paul George – 5:28 PM Jeff Eisenband @JeffEisenband
Brian Kelly left because he didn’t think Notre Dame could win a National Championship, but Marcus Freeman as head coach is probably the piece they were missing to win a National Championship. pic.twitter.com/iXsro6m1Yj – 1:55 PM

Bobby Marks @BobbyMarks42
Plenty of decisions await interim GM Joe Cronin in Portland:
– Expiring contracts of Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic
And of course, taking the daily temperature of Damian Lillard and his future with the organization.
Portland is 11-12 and in 9th place – 12:28 PM The Ringer @ringernba
We’ve seen enough: It’s time for the Dame and CJ partnership to end. #TheVoidNBA pic.twitter.com/NFJGQadwyZ – 12:22 PM Marla Ridenour @MRidenourABJ
The ‘all of a sudden’ aspect of Freeman’s life still fits. My story from 2011 on @Marcus_Freeman1 from his early days with @KentStFootball: New Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman got a start as linebackers coach at Kent State @NDFootball beaconjournal.com/story/sports/c… via @beaconjournal – 10:51 AM Michael Lee @MrMichaelLee
I wanted to know if Notre Dame made the right call on Marcus Freeman. So, I checked with the most passionate Fighting Irish supporter I know, @TMooreSports. Of course, he had already broken it down to the very last compound.
forbes.com/sites/terencem… – 10:23 AM

More on this storyline

Kyle Neubeck: Stephen A. Smith just said on NBA Countdown that New York is the one place Dame Lillard would angle for if he eventually wanted/asked out. Adds, “There are people in his camp who would like him to give Philadelphia stronger consideration.” -via Twitter @KyleNeubeck / December 4, 2021 Some have even suggested that Olshey would have been willing to trade Lillard before moving McCollum, though that speculation will now remain a thought experiment permanently. -via Philly Voice / December 4, 2021 Damian Lillard: I’ve had players around the league tell me, like, ‘Man, you should go here or you should leave,’ because they want it for me. Sometimes you have people around the league that you’re cool with it that have experienced it or have not and see you as somebody that can do something different and have an opportunity to win it so they want that for you. So, they make suggestions and things like that but I think that at the end of the day they respect my stance. It’s not in disrespect to anybody else who made a different decision, it’s just in respect for me standing in what I believe and being able to deal with whatever the consequences are. -via reddit / December 4, 2021