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Damian Lillard is finally having a great offseason. Just last month, Lillard was a member of the US Men’s Olympic basketball team that won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He has now has added plenty of cheer to his personal life by tying the knot with long-time girlfriend Kay’la Hanson.
A number of Damian Lillard’s current and former Portland teammates, including Jusuf Nurkic, CJ McCollum and Evan Turner, attended the wedding. Nurkic apparently flew back from Europe to attend his teammate’s day of happiness.
Other NBA stars who were in attendance included Bradley Beal and Lillard's Team USA teammate Draymond Green. With artists such as Snoop Dogg and Common adding their musical talents to the ceremony, everybody seemed to be having a gala time. Draymond Green in particular seemed to be having a fantastic time.
Damian Lillard's relationship with Portland
The success on both the professional and personal fronts comes for Damian Lillard after the Portland Trail Blazers were eliminated in the first round of the 2021 Playoffs. This was Lillard’s latest disappointment with Portland.
Following the first-round defeat, there were strong rumors that Lillard wanted out of Portland. After a Team USA practice in Tokyo, Lillard was himself quoted as saying, “I haven’t made any firm decision on what my future will be.”
But Lillard mellowed down and agreed that Free Agency doesn’t necessarily end up going as per a team’s plan.
“When you go into free agency and things like this, you never know what happens,” Lillard reportedly said during a media availability at the Tokyo Olympics. “You never know where guys are going to end up and why they go there. You just try to have conversations and convince guys to be a part of our team.”
He added:
“And obviously, this go around, we wasn’t able to go out there and just get some of the guys that we would have liked, and you go down the list and you go through the guys that are out there that you like who haven’t committed to a team or was a part of your plans in free agency and you get the ones that want to be a part of what you’re doing. And I think that’s what we did.”
Damian Lillard then himself shut down all the rumors about two weeks ago when he said, “I’m not leaving PDX, not right now at least.” That last bit is interesting because it means that Lillard is keeping all his options open for the future. With Portland hardly making any substantial moves on the player front in the offseason, it is difficult to see Damian Lillard’s relationship with his team improving.
Damian Lillard was drafted 6th overall in the 2012 Draft. He is a six-time All-Star, a franchise player for Portland and a former Rookie of the Year.
Also read: Top 5 individual performances of Damian Lillard’s career
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