When LaMarcus Aldridge was making his decision this summer as to what franchise he would be heading to, there were a ton of suitors lined up for his services.
The Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers all made an attempt to court LaMarcus. At the end of the day, LMA chose the Spurs and while a lot of the decision had to do with on-court things, there was a big part of some off-court issues that resonated with Aldridge. He noticed that the Blazers franchise was headed in a direction centered around Damian Lillard.
Following from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Leaving that meeting in Dallas in late June, perhaps little was more telling than the fact Aldridge never raised one particular name: Damian Lillard. Ultimately, this was the enigma of LaMarcus Aldridge. He wanted talent around him, but never too much that it might lessen his own marquee. Pleasing Aldridge was never easy, and nobody knew that better than the Portland Trail Blazers.
Aldridge loathed driving around Portland and seeing those Lillard billboards that adidas had mounted for him – even when the Blazers made Aldridge the centerpiece of every franchise marketing investment. Here’s how it worked in San Antonio, they told him: No Spurs player is ever alone on a billboard.
Aldridge has stated before that he has no problem with Lillard but there might be some sort of professional jealousy between the two. You can’t blame Lillard for anything he’s done in his career. Dame has been spectacular throughout his time in the NBA and he’s deserved everything he’s gotten in his life. That shouldn’t have been a huge deal to LaMarcus.
Apparently it was and he made a decision to join a team with continuity around it centering their thoughts around a team aspect as opposed to being focused on one star.
