Damian Lillard doesn't want any playoff teams left to win the NBA Finals because it means a star younger than him gets a ring
In a sentiment felt by many Milwaukee Bucks fans right now, Damian Lillard doesn't want any of the remaining teams in the playoffs to win the NBA Finals.
He said so during an alternate broadcast on TruTV for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night.
The all-time great guard said it's been difficult to watch playoff basketball since the Bucks lost in the first round to the Indiana Pacers. The competitor in the all-star doesn't want to see any of the young stars on the remaining teams get a championship ring before him.
"One of these teams really 'bout to win a championship," Lillard said. "Usually I'll be pulling for the team that already won a ring before so nobody will win one before me. But all four of these teams ... whoever win ... somebody's gonna get their first one before me this year, no matter who wins."
"I become a little hater toward the end," he added.
Regardless of the 33-year-old Lillard and his wishes to be a champion, somebody else is going to win it all next month.
In the West, there is the Minnesota Timberwolves and young phenom Anthony Edwards (age 22) or the Dallas Mavericks and Slovenian star Luka Dončić (25). The Eastern Conference Finals started on Tuesday and participating is the Boston Celtics and star Jayson Tatum (26) and the Indiana Pacers and Oshkosh native Tyrese Haliburton (24).
Damian Lillard talks Achilles injury
The Bucks' season came to a disappointing end as a team that started with high hopes but ended up trying to build chemistry amid changes and injuries. Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a left calf strain near the end of the regular season, sidelining him for the first round. While Lillard reaggravated an Achilles injury in Game 3 and sat for some of the series. Lillard returned in the pivotal Game 6, but the Bucks lost.
He addressed the injury in Wednesday's broadcast on TruTV. Lillard said he recently started physical therapy. "I'm doing my PT stuff just trying to get it ... to full strength, start moving on it before I get back on the court so I can get right," Lillard said.
Lillard joined the program by video from Portland, where he played 11 seasons with the Trail Blazers, and lives in the offseason. He said once the season was over he returned to the Pacific Northwest where his kids attend school. "When the season is over, ... I go back to my normal life," he said.
Damian Lillard on the faces of the NBA
The hosts of the program asked Lillard to weigh in on young stars and faces of the league as there seems to be a changing of the guard in the NBA as older stars like Lebron James (39), Steph Curry (36) and Kevin Durant (35) are definitely in the second half of their careers and have all been eliminated from the playoffs.
Lillard played with Edwards last summer for USA Basketball and said he enjoys his game, but he is interested in the potential of another young star drafted No. 1 overall — Victor Wembanyama (20) of the San Antonio Spurs by the way of France.
"I think by next season people gonna be talking 'bout (Wembanyama) as being the best player in the league," Lillard said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks star Lillard wants all remaining NBA playoff teams to lose
