Blazers' Damian Lillard: Winning NBA Championship 'Extremely Important to My Legacy'

Despite previously speaking out against the NBA's obsession with ring culture, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is aware winning a championship would redefine how his career gets viewed.

In an interview with Michael Scott of HoopsHype, Lillard acknowledged a title is "extremely important to my legacy" in the overall NBA hierarchy:

"A championship would mean a lot to me, but in my personal opinion, if I don't win it, it's not the end all, be all to me. I wouldn't be happy with it, but I think when you talk about other people's perception, I think it's extremely important to my legacy. It's extremely important to me, but my opinion of me not winning wouldn't be the same as others."

While Lillard did acknowledge he wants to win a championship, he continued to push back against the need to do that for his own personal sense of value as an NBA player.

During an appearance on The Old Man and the Three podcast in March (h/t Prince J. Grimes of USA Today), Lillard lamented about the state of the NBA because everything is defined by the binary of winning a title or not winning a title:

"While I understand we play to win championships—we all want to win a championship—we can't keep acting like the journey doesn't matter. We can't keep doing that. There are so many ways that the league is different. And I think about it all the time where I'm like, man, 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."

Even though Lillard wants to put an emphasis on the journey of each season, he's also in a position where his timeline and Portland's timeline may not line up any longer.

Lillard told reporters during his end-of-season press conference on April 10 he doesn't "have much of an appetite for bringing in guys two and three years away from really going after it."

The Blazers currently own the No. 3 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, but they have been shopping it with the hope of adding a player who can help them improve next season.

Per Yahoo Sports' Jake Fischer, the Blazers are "preparing" what they believe will be a compelling package for the Miami Heat centered around Bam Adebayo.

Of course, the Heat have been linked to Lillard in trade rumors. The Athletic's David Aldridge reported on Sunday that Jimmy Butler has been a "central part" of Miami's efforts to recruit Lillard.

Fischer noted Lillard's preference is to remain in Portland where he's spent all 11 years of his NBA career to this point. He signed a two-year contract extension with the club in July 2022 that ties him to the Blazers through the 2025-26 season with a player option for 2026-27.