Damian Lillard has had enough. The Portland Trail Blazers star has caught a ton of flak over his endorsement of initial head coaching candidate Jason Kidd and eventual selection Chauncey Billups, both of whom have had assault cases made against them in the past.
Kidd, who was Lillard's first choice for the Blazers coaching vacancy, was arrested in 2001 for assaulting his ex-wife Joumana Kidd, which was eventually settled with a plea deal. Chauncey Billups, meanwhile, had to settle a rape allegation thrown at him and former teammate Ron Mercer back in his rookie season with the Boston Celtics.
Various voices on Twitter expressed their concern at Lillard's involvement, or lack thereof, in terms of trying to keep either men from being named the next Blazers head coach.
This is on Dame IMO. They were always going to hire exactly who he wanted and he wanted Billups or Kidd. They put out names like Becky Hammon and Mike D’Antoni to cool off some of the backlash and hired the guy who they were always going to hire.
— Ed Rogers Hate Account (@YAnunoby) June 26, 2021
The Blazers star decided to clap back at this specific tweet, coming back with a retort of how he simply expressed who he was interested in becoming his next coach. Lillard didn't expect he'd need to do something of a background check and he claimed not to be aware of such misconduct, much less condone it.
Really? I was asked what coaches I like of the names I “heard” and I named them. Sorry I wasn’t aware of their history I didn’t read the news when I was 7/8yrs old. I don’t support Those things … but if this the route y’all wana come at me… say less https://t.co/N1GPkX3Ohd
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) June 26, 2021
Lillard even doubled down on his take on the matter. The Blazers star sent a follow up tweet in response to the same poster.
I said what I said family. https://t.co/uwgFRPS5zW
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) June 26, 2021
As things stand, Chauncey Billups has already agreed to be the Portland Trail Blazers' next head coach. There's obviously some level of expectation for Damian Lillard, as the face of the franchise, to spearhead such movements. Multiple members of the Portland community have made known their displeasure at the candidacies of both Billups and Kidd.
But at the same time, he's human too and isn't exactly omniscient about everything that goes on, nor should he be. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out in Portland in the weeks and months to come.