Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard knew that the day he and CJ McCollum are no longer playing on the same team would come, and he reflected on it during an interview with Casey Holdahl. When asked by Holdahl about his thoughts on the reality that he and McCollum now play for different teams, Lillard offered a truthful response.
This is something that me and C, we talked about it over the years, like, this being a possibility. I would say in the last three years it was always something where me and him would talk and he would be like “You know, I might be out of here,” just loosely saying stuff like that and I’d be like “Nah, I don’t think so.” But as time went on we both knew that it’s going to come a point where we might not be a backcourt anymore, whether that was him getting traded or me getting traded. You just never know where teams are, we don’t know as players all the time.




For several years, the Blazers' dynamic duo of Lillard and McCollum felt unbreakable. But one of NBA history's greatest backcourt tandems was suddenly split by the Blazers Tuesday, as the team sent McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans in a deal just days away from the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 10.
While Lillard and McCollum were not able to bring a championship to Portland, Blazers fans will never forget the highs and the lows that they endured watching each season that the two guards played for their team.