Over the weekend, the National Basketball Association finally stepped in on the impasse between the Blazers and Damian Lillard, their lone marquee name. It was right to do so, of course. Prior to its issuance of a warning to the seven-time All-Star, he and Aaron Goodwin, his agent, had been telling potential suitors that he would play only for the Heat. Needless to say, the intent was to scare away even the biggest risk takers. Why attempt acquire a compromised good?
To counteract the distortion of the free market economy for which the collective bargaining agreement is supposed to stand, the league sent all franchises a memorandum stating in no uncertain terms that Lillard will honor the contract that he signed in 2021 and extended last year. As he should; after all, he is slated to earn a whopping $45.64 million in the coming season, and an additional $170.56 million over the following three years. To angle for the princely sum and then move to force the Blazers to have him earn it elsewhere is tantamount to manipulating the system.
Not that the sight of stars taking empowerment to the extreme is a rarity. To the contrary, NBA annals are replete with examples of players compelling employers to ship them elsewhere as a manifestation of addition by subtraction. Most recently, such notables as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have likewise gone the same route — albeit with a significant caveat: There was no outright declaration of a single acceptable destination. Forget Lillard and Godwin’s subsequent denial of their objective; past the parsing, the message was received, and clearly.
If there is any value to the NBA’s memo, it’s in the reminder that the front office can step in any time it so wishes. Whether it actually gets trade partners to line up on the Blazers’ doorstep is, however, another matter altogether. The ask for Lillard is too much absent an assurance from him that he will be at his best from here on — and even that can no longer be seen as etched in stone. After all, he had been going out of his way to tell all and sundry that he valued loyalty, only to do a 180-degree turn and push for a change of address.
All things considered, the Heat are still deemed the favorites to land Lillard. What the NBA’s memo does give the Blazers, though, is negotiating power. They’re dead set against settling for pennies to the dollar (or Dame Dolla, to be precise), and could well drag out the affair. In any case, nobody’s coming out smelling like roses — not them, not him, and not anybody else.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
