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Dame Lillard on Ring Culture: ‘I Don’t Enjoy What the NBA As a Whole Is Becoming’

Also in Traina Thoughts: A new ‘SI Media with Jimmy Traina’ podcast drops; Yankees greed knows no bounds; CBS NFL announcer shake-up and more.

Jimmy Traina

Dame Lillard on Ring Culture: ‘I Don’t Enjoy What the NBA As a Whole Is Becoming’
Dame Lillard on Ring Culture: ‘I Don’t Enjoy What the NBA As a Whole Is Becoming’ /

1. You won’t often see an athlete open up in such an introspective and nuanced way like Blazers star Damian Lillard did with JJ Redick on the latest Old Man and the Three podcast.

Lillard, who is in his 11th season, spoke about how the NBA has changed over the years, and not for the better, in his opinion. Specifically, Lillard was referencing “ring culture” and how many people think the only thing that matters in a player’s career is winning a championship.

“The NBA I play in now is not the NBA I came into,” Lillard said to Redick. “I expected it to evolve. Everything is constantly changing. But I feel like I play for the love of the game. I want the competition. I want to know what it feels like to win. I want to see my teammates do well. I want to see my teammates get paid. I enjoy the bonding part of it. We spend more time with each other than anybody. But now that don’t count. Regular season doesn’t count. Get a ring. This guy’s the MVP. This guy did this. What is this?

“I don’t want to make it about my situation, but I was talking after a game a week ago and they were asking me, ‘Dame, to win a ring …’

“Bro, I don’t need to prove to y’all that I wanna win a ring. Why the hell do I play? I don’t need to prove that to y’all. I understand that we play to win championships and we all want to win a championship, but we can’t keep acting like nothing matters. Like the journey doesn’t matter. We can’t keep doing that. There are so many ways the league is different. There are so many ways. I think about it all the time that I don’t know if I can play a long, long time because I don’t enjoy what the NBA as a whole is becoming.”

Lillard then went on to explain that he’s just a regular person trying to enjoy his life.

“I have a real life,” said Lillard. “I don’t live my life as Damian Lillard. I go home. I play with my kids. I go to my mom’s house. I hang out with my cousins. I have a life. I talk to my grandmother on the phone. My uncle calls me, and we talk on the phone all night about just regular stuff.

“I have a life that’s stable and is not based upon who I am as an NBA player. I have real friends. My best friend comes to Portland. He works a job where he can work from home. He’s single, and he’ll come stay for a few weeks. He’ll book a one-way, and we have real friendship. I don’t sit here and just think about, ‘I need to leave all the time.’ I’m not sitting there watching TV and hearing everything they gotta say. ‘I probably should do this or probably should do that.’ When my career is over, y’all are not about to be talking about me.”

While analysts and fans love to use championships as a barometer for judging players, it was fascinating to hear one of the best players in the league share a perspective that could make you think differently on the subject.

2. A new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning, and it features an interview with ESPN NBA analyst Richard Jefferson.

Jefferson, who also hosts a podcast and calls Nets games for the YES Network, discusses his rise in sports media, what his ultimate goal is in broadcasting and how important social media is for his career. Jefferson also talks about how he approaches TikTok and accumulating 1.4 million followers, why he hates Twitter, the load management controversy, Ja Morant, his ongoing feud with Knicks fans and much more.

Following Jefferson, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week we discuss filling out NCAA Tournament brackets, the World Baseball Classic, two highlights from the Oscars and the overall movie-going experience in 2023.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. This is an outstanding story from my colleague Stephanie Apstein on the Yankees, valued at $7.1. billion, charging their players for Wi-Fi on team flights. 

4. Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reports that Greg Gumbel will no longer be calling NFL games for CBS. Gumbel had been part of the network's fourth crew behind Jim Nantz, Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan. The hope here is that CBS promotes Andrew Catalon, who always calls a great game, to take Gumbel's spot.

5. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky should learn that not every personal detail should be tweeted, because this is gross.

6. We all know the NFL is a business, but it still sucks that the Lions would part ways with running back Jamaal Williams after he gave this memorable interview when Detroit knocked off Green Bay in the last week of the regular season to keep the Packers out of the playoffs.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 80th birthday to ’80s WWF legend the Iron Sheik. Watching him win the belt because the towel was thrown in was one of the traumatic things of my childhood.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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