Video: Damian Lillard Clarifies Twitter Like About Blazers' Allen amid Trade Rumors

Damian Lillard said Friday that he accidentally liked a tweet encouraging Jody Allen to sell the Portland Trail Blazers to Nike founder Phil Knight.

The tweet in question expressed the opinion that Knight would not care about going over the luxury tax threshold and would find a way to convince Lillard to stay in Portland:

Speaking Friday on Instagram Live, Lillard praised Allen, insisted that liking the tweet was done by mistake and divulged that he had unliked the tweet:

Lillard said Allen has been "solid" to him and his family in ways that extend beyond basketball, and he made it clear that he would never intentionally do anything to criticize or disrespect her.

Allen is the sister of Microsoft founder Paul Allen, who purchased the Blazers in 1988 and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks in 1997. Since his death in 2018, Jody Allen has been in charge of Paul Allen's trust.

Lillard, 33, has spent his entire 11-year NBA career with the Blazers, but his time in Portland could be nearing its conclusion.

Due to his desire to win a championship and the Blazers' inability or unwillingness to build a roster capable of contending for a title in the near future, Lillard requested a trade in recent weeks.

Lillard is a seven-time All-Star and seven-time All-NBA selection, and he is perhaps the greatest player in franchise history.

He is perhaps reaching the latter portion of his career and has struggled with injuries in recent seasons, but he is still a dominant offensive force when healthy as evidenced by his career-high 32.2 points per game last season.

The Miami Heat are the main team Lillard has been linked to in a trade, but the Blazers seemingly aren't looking to rush into anything.

It is possible that the Blazers are hoping to convince Lillard to stay by waiting things out, but with no clear path to contention in the near future, it may not be in the cards for Lillard to finish his career in Portland.