Damian Lilard and the hard road

In sport, even less so if it is collective, no one wins alone.

However, it is often judged by the masses on that one factor, victory.

As if everything was there.

Nothing else seems to matter when any analysis or even stigma is built around the end result, reducing all context to ashes.

The dominant narrative points out that you are what you earn and, if you don't, you run the risk of ending up being nothing.

To the tyranny of the result must be added, in the NBA these days, the permanent agitation regarding the movement of stars, a scenario motivated by the growing power, in terms of decision-making, of players capable of even conditioning projects integers.

And it's easy to point to Brooklyn to check it out.

But deep down both elements, triumph and control of destiny, seem to go together for every high-level player who understands that his legacy will be formed from how much his track record is populated.

That is why Damian Lillard remains a peculiar case.

Because on the one hand, having turned 32, his collective success, with no presence in the NBA Finals and only one in the Conference Finals (2019), hurts his dimension as a player.

But, on the other hand, he continues to give up out of conviction to break his relationship with the Blazers, the only franchise he has known in his 11-year professional career.

"I want to win as much as anyone but, as I understand this, I would find much more satisfaction if I do it by coming the hard way", the player has pointed out on dozens of occasions.

"If I finish my race without winning, I can live with it if I value the effort I put into trying to achieve it," he summarized, explaining not only the way he interprets his career but, in fact, his life as well. .

Actually, Lillard's significance to Portland (and the state of Oregon) goes far beyond his athletic side.

Already during his freshman year he created the 'Respect' program, aimed at high school students, in order to provide resources and serve as a guide in values ​​to young people in academic and personal training.

Even today, his periodic appearances by the different centers integrated in the program, a sign of his interest in his development, continue to perplex adolescents, who have a vital model in him.

There is, in the end, no teacher who can capture the attention of a student at the level of his idol.

For ten years Lillard has devised countless community-focused initiatives.

From Portland, her professional home, to Oakland, her birthplace.

From premeditated actions (he refounded a summer festival in California) to other improvised ones (a few summers ago he met, after being called on social networks, with hundreds of fans to spend the afternoon with them and give them sports equipment in a park northwest of Portland).

Lillard seemed to fall into oblivion, at least for the media cannibalism that feeds on the thriving news, when last year – suffering from an abdominal injury – he played only 29 games, by far the lowest figure in his career.

Without him, the Blazers sank.

Very quickly he forgot – without going any further – his end of the previous season (2020-21), in which he averaged 34 points and 10 assists in the

, including an alien performance of 55 points and 10 basket passes.

Or simply that in five of the previous six seasons he had finished among the eight best NBA players in the race for the most coveted award, the MVP.

Recognition is ephemeral and its expiration is immediate, but he embraces resurgence.

“I think there is more respect for success when you see how you handle the bad times,” admitted the last campaign, following criticism.

Because if something is clear to him, it is his commitment to the cause, a feeling of belonging forged in fire, and in the family, since childhood.

His number '0', in fact, is not a casual choice because -by resembling the zero to the letter 'o'- it serves as a recognition of where he comes from (Oakland, where he was born; Ogden, where he studied at the university level; and Oregon , where he develops his professional stage).

Now, the Blazers' exciting start to the season, at the top of the Western Conference, stimulates their predatory competitive nature.

The help received in the summer, in the form especially of the landing of the versatile Jerami Grant, a small forward with a calling as a lifeguard, due to his ability to cover many different roles on both ends of the floor, has come to Portland's rescue.

Because Grant has provided Chauncey Billups' ensemble with a necessary path to balance.

Ultimately, the Blazers' problem over the past decade used to be how their defensive shortcomings undid the dominance of their offense.

A fragility that always penalized in the qualifying rounds.

Now, with the exciting Anfernee Simons occupying the gap left by CJ McCollum on the perimeter, work is being done to strengthen the structure with profiles such as Josh Hart and Justise Winslow, both of a markedly collective character, laying bricks among so much silk.

Lillard continues to be deadly in attack (almost 29 points on average per game) and decisive in late matches, where over the years he has earned well-deserved prestige for his way of making a difference.

Only he now aims to be better sheltered defensively and less forced to be a full-time superhero.

In short, he will see himself more capable of competing in a more choral way.

The player's commitment to the franchise is reciprocal, once Jody Allen, sister of former owner Paul Allen - who died in 2018 - confirmed on his way to head the organization that he did not see a Blazers without Lillard.

The objective, although distant and difficult, is to make noise in a West that would be wrong to forget that Lillard is still one of its main protagonists.

Because although uncharacteristically faithful, Damian Lillard is still a big star.

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