While some stars have focused their future in lining up the next NBA superteam, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard has vastly set himself apart from that club.

Lillard is a franchise player, but not one willing to wear an extra hat as a front office executive, determining who to target in free agency and who should leave.

“I’m going to go out there and get to the playoffs and put my best foot forward before I go out there and say (clicks his tongue) ‘Man, you need to go out there and get him instead of him.’ Because that’s not who I am,” Lillard told Jason Quick of The Athletic. “And I don’t care what nobody has to say about it. I’m not going to be the person to say I want to win a ring so bad and all I care about is winning.

“Because at the end of the day, I know in my heart I want to win. I want to win a championship for this city, but I’m not willing to put somebody under the bus to do it. That means more to me than saying ‘I won a championship!’ but now this guy has been traded to a bad situation, and now his team don’t like him as much and he might be out of the league in a year. I’m not going to have that. I’m not going to have that on me.”

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Lillard is a purist in a way — a relic dropped in a modern where rings and legacy are all that matters in a player's career.

The Blazers have fallen short in recent history perhaps more than any other team in the NBA — and Lillard has been part of plenty of their shortcomings. Portland doesn't reel in big-time names or make blockbuster trades, yet Dame is happy to come from the offseason better, stronger and wiser, hoping to make another run at a ring.

While many stars of his calibers are secretly lobbying to create the next superteam, Lillard won't be the one who puts the fate of his teammates in his own hands.