For nine years of a man’s life, all he knew was one city, one stadium to call home and one fan base that supported him through thick and thin. LaMarcus Aldridge was on the Portland Trail Blazers for nearly a decade and over the summer he elected to test free agency. He wanted to be wined and dined and all the top organizations came out to woo him but at the end of the day, he went to the San Antonio Spurs.
Either he was going to make this move now and immediately become a contender for the NBA championship or he would have to sit with Portland with the future being centered around Damian Lillard and a general manager who wasn’t afraid to make moves to break up the team and improve the franchise’s future.
Aldridge said a big reason he chose San Antonio was because they made it ‘safe’ for him to go there. He never said he was comfortable with it, he said the process left him ‘mentally drained’ and apparently he’s still coming to grips with what his life has become.
Following from Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com.
Talking about his first preseason game as a member of the Spurs against the Sacramento Kings.
The night was “(a) little overwhelming because it doesn’t really hit you until you really go put on the jersey and then you go play,” Aldridge said. “I knew I was in San Antonio, but it doesn’t really hit you until you’re on the court trying to figure out how to run an offense again and things like that. But I think the process has been going well so far.”
“I need every game no matter what, whether Tim and those guys are playing or not,” Aldridge said. “I need the game reps, the time out there to just get more comfortable with them. I’m not comfortable yet, so I thought this game was very valuable for me just trying to make that step into being comfortable.
“It’s just different. I’m not saying I’m uncomfortable. I’m just adjusting to the newness, and trying to learn how to play with guys is a process and them learning how to play off me, vice versa. I think it’s just going to be a process.”That word again: process.
“Honestly I don’t know,” assistant coach Ettore Messina, subbing for Popovich, said when asked for his estimation of how long it will take Aldridge to feel comfortable with the San Antonio system. “All of us are getting to know each other, day after day. The good thing is that he seems at ease with the team, with the staff, with everything. Nobody is forcing nothing. I think it will come naturally …”
LaMarcus Aldridge isn’t your run of the mill guy out there just looking to make a buck or focused on a title. He’s shown in the past that he does have a heart and he cares about Portland and the Blazers organization. He said he’d expect some boos when he returns to Portland but a man who risked his future as a free agent by playing through a hand injury, I wouldn’t expect anything but cheers from the Blazers faithful.
As Howard-Cooper states, this whole thing is a process. He’s not going to snap his fingers and be immediately comfortable in San Antonio. He needs to find a new house, since he sold his Portland home, and get used to going to this new stadium, meet new people in the organization and just get used to San Antonio. You can’t blame LaMarcus for not being comfortable but hopefully it won’t affect his play on the court.
