Damian Lillard on winning a ring: “I’d rather do it with the team I have. I’d rather build it up”

Damian Lillard said it before: Kevin Durant did what he did this summer choosing to help form a superteam in Golden State, but it was not something he could do. Lillard didn’t mean it as a shot at Durant, although it sort of came off as one.

Lillard went on The Jim Rome Show on CBS Sports Radio Thursday and tried to clarify that he was not firing a shot across the bow of KD, but he also didn’t back down from what he said the first time.

What I was saying was about myself, it wasn’t about anybody else. I was saying joining other big time players and joining a team like Golden State is that something I couldn’t see myself doing. We play this game to win and if that’s what somebody is willing to do to win and if that’s what they want to go and do then that’s fine, it’s not against the rules we can’t be mad at anybody for joining whatever team they want to join but what I was saying I’d rather do it with the team I have. I’d rather build it up and to being a championship team.

Little discussed fact: Rome has developed into one of the best interviewers in the business. He turned this into a discussion of Lillard saying what he thinks, not resorting to cliches and bland soundbites.

No I’m going always going to say what I feel and say what I think.... But I think that’s also a problem in sports sometimes when you don’t allow to say what they feel, or when guys tell the truth about what they think about something or what they feel about something it becomes an issue and it’s like he shouldn’t have said this or this guy said that or you kind of force people into wanting to give you a cliché answer or just like a you know what I mean, they don’t give you details because every time they say something it gets twisted and turned into something that it’s not....

Even when I do speak I’m not going to go say nothing crazy about anybody or nothing off the wall, so its I mean whatever.