During a recent episode of the Aarthi and Sriram podcast, Golden State Warriors champion Andre Iguodala was asked for his thoughts on Damian Lillard requesting a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Miami Heat.
“That’s a tough battle, as well,” Iguodala said. “Steve Kerr and I have been in conversations about this as well, obviously I don’t wanna throw Steve under the bus, but I agree with Steve. Dame Lillard is one of the top players in the NBA, and he wants to win. And if his organization isn’t putting him in a position to win, then why should he have to suffer? And I’m not saying they’re not trying to win, but that’s normally what it is with superstar players… At one side, you can’t be upset at an athlete for wanting to be traded, but then on the other side when he’s not winning because the team isn’t set up to win, you can’t criticize him.”
What Iguodala is saying, is that it isn’t fair for Lillard to be criticized for not winning, and then also criticized for asking out of a situation where he has no path to winning. This often becomes a difficult situation for players like Lillard, as they deal with the pressure of chasing a championship while being in a situation where that’s nearly impossible.
