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Longtime Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum spent each of his previous nine seasons in the NBA with the franchise. Portland drafted McCollum and molded him into the star player he is today. It's understandable that it would be tough news for the longtime Blazer to hear when he was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans at the deadline. But McCollum wasn't the only one who had to come to terms with the trade. McCollum's own family had to grapple with the fact that their lives were about to change. With the Pelicans and Blazers set to face off on Wednesday night, it will mark McCollum's return to the place has called home since 2013. He reflected on the trade from the Blazers in an interview on NBA.com.
Article Continues BelowObviously I’ve got relationships with players and staff and the team and I miss them and that was hard to leave, but it’s harder to leave my wife and my son. That was the tough part.
The comfort of being somewhere for so long, getting used to everything — the drive, the restaurants, the people, the places you go, the routine, everything becomes a part of your normal, day-to-day routines, so just anxious about the change. Anxious about what it’s going to be like, the city, how my family is going to react and those types of things.
As McCollum said, the hardest part was leaving his wife and son, who was only about four weeks old at the time of the trade. The two couldn't just uproot their lives to travel with McCollum to New Orleans, so the family had to plan.
Not only that, but McCollum had to face the anxiety of a change in his everyday routine. The Pelicans star faced a lot of uncertainty with the trade, something he elaborated on in a piece with the Player's Tribune.
It's clear that McCollum enjoys being in New Orleans, though his interview is an interesting look into the parts of a sports trade that often don't get talked about.
