Damian Lillard requests trade from Portland Trail Blazers

Damian Lillard has said repeatedly that he wants to contend fora championship. After 11 years in Portland, he has decided he needsto move elsewhere to make that happen.

Lillard asked the Trail Blazers for a trade, a move that willend the seven-time All-Star’s tenure with that team, two peoplefamiliar with the matter said Saturday.

Lillard will generate interest from the Miami Heat and BrooklynNets, among others, according to the people who spoke to TheAssociated Press on condition of anonymity because no details wereannounced publicly. One of the people told the AP that Lillard’spreference is Miami — the reigning Eastern Conference champion —though that hardly guarantees the Trail Blazers will work tofacilitate that specific move.

Lillard is coming off a season in which he averaged 32.2 pointsfor the Trail Blazers. He is a seven-time All-NBA selection and wasselected to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team — but he has never beenclose to a title in his 11 seasons in the league.

He has met with Portland multiple times in recent weeks, askingfor the roster to be upgraded to the point where he can compete fora championship. But those efforts, evidently, have not gone toLillard’s liking and led to him asking to be moved elsewhere.

His decision was revealed on thesecond day of NBA freeagency, after Portland made a huge splash onthefirst nightbyretaining Jerami Grant with a $160 million, five-year deal.

For as great as his resume is, Lillard hasn’t enjoyed much inthe way of postseason success. The Blazers have won only fourplayoff series in his 11 seasons, making the Western Conferencefinals once during that span. The team went 33-49 this past season,the second consecutive year of finishing well outside the playoffpicture.

But Lillard is, by any measure, a dynamic player. He hasaveraged at least 24 points per game in each of the last eightseasons, and his career average of 25.2 points ranks fourth amongactive players (with at least 375 games) behind Kevin Durant, JoelEmbiid and LeBron James. If that list was expanded to all playerswith no game minimums, Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson and Trae Youngwould also be ahead of Lillard.

He had a 71-point game this past season against Houston, has 17games of at least 50 points in his career — two of them in theplayoffs — and is a past rookie of the year, teammate of the yearand winner of the NBA’s citizenship award. He’s even an Olympicgold medalist, winning one alongside Miami’s Bam Adebayo at theTokyo Games and raving at times about how much he enjoyed playingwith the Heat center.

The only glaring omission on Lillard’s resume: a championship.And now he’ll seek a move to change that.

“I would say I want to be remembered for who I was, not as aplayer, but the principle that I stood on regardless of howsuccessful I was, how major the failure was, the criticism, whatpeople thought I should have did, what people think of me ... nomatter what was happening, I want to be remembered for who I was,”Lillard said in an interview withformer teammate Evan Turner for the “PointForward” podcastearlier this year. “I stood tall.I’ve stood tall in every situation and I want to be remembered forthat.”

It will take some team — whether it’s Miami, Brooklyn or anyoneelse — a massive haul of probably both players and draft picks topersuade Portland to trade Lillard. He will make almost $46 millionthis coming season and could make as much as $216 million over thenext four years if he exercises his option for the 2026-27season.