Damian Lillard was definitely happy that his team ended its seven-game losing streak on Friday night, beating the Charlotte Hornets 125-116. The Portland Trail Blazers superstar was no doubt pleased he fully shook off early-season struggles, too, playing by far his best game of 2021-22 and one of the most efficient of his entire career.
On the postgame podium, though, Lillard certainly didn't look or sound like a player who just dropped 43 points, eight assists and six triples on one of the league's up-and-coming teams while spearheading a wire-to-wire home victory. Why? Asked to explain his relatively gruff demeanor by team reporter Casey Holdahl, Lillard expressed his simmering frustration with reporters in the room at Moda Center.
“I'm happy we won the game. That's what we come here to do. Like I felt happy throughout the game, after the game. In the locker room, I felt happy,” he said. “But when I come here and I gotta answer questions, and I have done so much in my career, specifically in Portland. I've given everything. I've never made an excuse. I've never disrespected any of y'all. I've never not given you guys time. Just when our team is going through it, I'm in a little bit of a struggle, I see certain people not giving me that same respect. So that's why I'm a little irritated in here, but with my team I'm happy with what we did. So…that's that. And I still come in here and give that same time, but I just don't appreciate it, man.”
Lillard made clear that his tone won't be changing from here on out, either.
“It'll be handled that way going forward,” he said. “So…that's that.”
Lillard, to be clear, is one of the most thoughtful, verbose and professional interview subjects in the NBA. He won the Pro Basketball Writers Association's Magic Johnson Award in 2020 and 2017, an honor annually bestowed to the NBA player whose excellence on the floor is matched by his cooperation and dignity with the media. Players aren't obligated to answer questions from reporters to the best of their knowledge and ability; Lillard regularly makes it seem like they are.
He even did as much for the most part on Friday, but in a tone that suggested something wasn't right. It's a testament to Lillard's candid, forthright approach with the media—one he's alluded to time and again over the last few months while shutting down trade rumors—that he answered a question about his perceived exasperation honestly. Whether his attitude is justified is really only for Lillard to say; he didn't get into the specifics that prompted it.
Criticism is part of the game in all sports, but especially those at the highest level. Lillard knows that, obviously. What he's more foreign to are the personal and team-wide struggles that have marked Portland's start to the regular season, and, consequently, the more negative coverage that's come along with them.
Some of the factors driving those labors are beyond the Blazers' control. Lillard's worked hard to manage his abdominal tendinopathy, for instance, and it's not like the players got together and replaced Terry Stotts with a rookie head coach. The conduct that got Neil Olshey fired wasn't theirs, either.
Maybe all Lillard wants is for those external variables to be factored into the context of his personal woes and Portland's 12-18 record. Either way, better headlines—and more wins, most importantly— are bound come the Blazers' way if Lillard can even scrape the ceiling he reached Friday night on a consistent basis going forward.
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