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When Damian Lillard was weighing his options following the Portland Trail Blazers playoff elimination last June, LeBron James invited him to a meeting on his rooftop in Brentwood. LeBron's Los Angeles Lakers teammate, Anthony Davis, was also present.
This is one of the many fascinating nuggets in Yahoo's Chris Haynes' inside report on Lillard's offseason and his decision to remain with the Blazers. Here's an excerpt:
“James sent Lillard an invitation to his mansion in Brentwood.
“He was like, ‘Pull up. Let’s have lunch to talk shop,’ ” Lillard told Yahoo Sports. “So I pulled up.”
The 6-foot-3 guard caught an Uber from his hotel to James’ house. After security opened the gate for the vehicle to enter the property, Lillard was met at the door by a house staffer who escorted him through the living room and into the elevator. The destination was the rooftop.
When the elevator reached the top floor, James and fellow Lakers star Anthony Davis were sitting on one side of a table waiting for Lillard to join them on the other side. Before they fully dove into lunch of an Italian salad followed by pasta and a fine bottle of rosé wine, James kicked off the conversation, detailing his experience living in Los Angeles.”
But don't worry — the Lakers stars were definitely not pitching the Blazers franchise player on a move to the Lakers.
“Lillard did not categorize the meeting as a platform for a recruiting presentation, but rather an information-gathering forum among respected peers.
‘Bron asked what I was thinking with my situation, and I told him what I’m telling you: that I just want to be in a position to win it all,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports. “He painted the picture to me that if I were to leave, the situation could look like this. He didn’t tell me to come to L.A., and he didn’t say anything to me that I didn’t already know other than what it could look like. I told him, ‘I know if I were to play with y’all, I know it would work out because of my skill set,’ and who I am and who they are.'”
The players lamented their playoff losses while Lillard shared his reluctance to join a super-team. LeBron then gave Lillard a tour of his house. Lillard knew Portland GM Neil Olshey would never trade him to Los Angeles, but took the meeting out of respect for LeBron, per Haynes.
The Lakers' interest in the Blazers star was previously reported by The Athletic, who noted that the Lakers (a.k.a LeBron, operating out of his Brentwood mansion) targeted Dame and Bradley Beal before shifting their focus onto more tradeable stars (i.e. Russell Westbrook).
In the end, Lillard — who is fiercely loyal, has dozens of family members in the Portland area, and was inspired by Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the Milwaukee Bucks to a title — decided that teaming up with stars in a major market wasn't his style. He decided to stay with the Blazers.
“I’m sure it would be great to play with LeBron and AD and play in a big market, but as attractive as it sounded and as fun as that might be, I don’t feel in my heart that that’s who I am or where I belong,” Dame said. “And one thing I want to emphasize is that this decision wasn’t made out of comfort. I’m not afraid to be out of my comfort zone because I’m going to live here when I’m done playing regardless. I made my decision based on what I actually want to do.”
Bet that rosé was pretty good, though.
