Following Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hitting a game-winner and Damian Lillard making history by becoming the all-time scoring leader in Portland Trail Blazers history, the latter was asked to give advice to the former.
Lillard has been one of the faces of loyalty around the NBA. The 32-year-old has spent all 11 seasons of his NBA career with the Trail Blazers despite being in constant trade rumors and discussions.
Following Monday’s game, Lillard was asked if he had any advice to give for the Oklahoma City Thunder superstar when it comes to dealing with outside noise that suggests he should ask out to win. Lillard gave a great response: Gilgeous-Alexander should appreciate the fact the Thunder are building around him.
“I mean, people have said it to me and in my career, I’ve won a lot of games. What I haven’t done is win a championship, but we’ve won since I’ve been here. Every year, we’ve won a lot of games.
“My advice would be he’s in a situation where he’s playing free. They believe in him. He’s got a group of guys that understands that he’s the leader, he’s the guy. … His career is in a great position. He’s off to a great start, and he’s coming into his own with that. I will say the grass is not always greener on the other side. You never know what it’s gonna look like, or how the next team might view you – especially when you have some injuries like he’s had, you just don’t know.
“I would tell him that a lot of these people that are saying, ‘free him’ and all of these things, or whatever, they are not the people that’s going to have to live with the consequences if it doesn’t work out and they’re not going to have to ever walk in his shoes. So it’s very easy for people to say those types of things when they also know that they won’t ever be held responsible or they won’t ever be affected by it. So that would be my advice to him.”
These are wise words from someone who’s been in Gilgeous-Alexander’s shoes when it comes to fans clamoring for him to ask out.
Damian Lillard on advice for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: "He's in a situation where he's playing free. … He's got a group of guys that understand he's the leader, he's the guy. … His career is in a great position. … I'd say the grass is not always greener on the other side…" pic.twitter.com/XQbdn9VhZe
— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) December 20, 2022
