“I’m Not Going to Be Participating”: Damian Lillard Puts a Big Question on His Return to NBA Post Lockdown

With talks of NBA resuming soon, players are torn between choosing the sport or family. Few like Joe Ingles believe it is not worth to put a game ahead of the safety of the family. Others believe the season should continue. Now Portland Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard has announced he refuses to play if the circumstances are not right.

Ninth seed Portland are three games and are one spot off the playoffs. They are behind Ja Morant‘s Memphis Grizzlies who are one spot above. But if the NBA plans on just playing a few games before starting the playoffs, Damian Lillard will not be featuring for the Blazers. “If we come back and they’re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don’t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I’m going to be with my team because I’m a part of the team. But I’m not going to be participating,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports.

How will the Trailblazers fare without Damian Lillard?

Damian Lillard is crucial to the Trailblazers’ wins. His clutch ability won them the playoff series against Oklahoma in the first round last year. The buzzer-beater three will forever be etched as one of the most iconic shots in NBA Playoff history. But how do the Blazers perform without him? In the six-game stretch, he missed during All-Star break, CJ McCollum stepped up averaging 33.3 points, 8.3 assists, and 5.3 rebounds. But that couldn’t prevent them from going on a 2-4 run. However, if the season does resume now, the Blazers would at least have young forward Zach Collins and center Jusuf Nurkic back in the side after being sidelined for months.

There are talks about the NBA potentially returning with many different options. One could be a few “meaningless” games like Lillard said. The next is directly going to the normal format playoffs, which seems more viable at this point. Talks of a 1-16 seeded playoffs with no conference is also doing the rounds.

“If they come back and say it’s something like a tournament, play-in style, between the No. 7 and No. 12 seeds, if we’re playing for playoff spots, then I think that’s perfect,” says Lillard, who is fairly confident in his team’s ability to make the playoffs if they are given a fair chance to compete for it.