{"id":21024,"date":"2025-07-24T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21024\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:21:08","slug":"damian-lillard-makes-telling-free-agency-admission-after-celtics-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/21024\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard makes telling free agency admission after Celtics pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Celtics<\/a> were reportedly one of the finalists for free agent star Damian Lillard before he opted to rejoin the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> last week on a three-year deal worth $42 million. However, some new comments from Lillard indicate that Boston<\/a> may never have had much of a chance after all to land the 35-year-old.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Portland this week, Lillard talked about getting the chance to team up with former Celtics guard Jrue Holiday. The veteran guard was traded to Portland for Anfernee Simons back in June and started recruiting Lillard to Portland after the deal. In the midst of talking about that pursuit, Lillard hinted that his plan all along was going back to his former team after the Bucks released him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I was waived and obviously [Jrue] knows that I live here and built my home here and stuff,\u201d Lillard told reporters in Portland. \u201cHe sent me the eyeball emoji. I kind of knew already like \u2014 I already knew where I was pivoting to when he sent it but I didn\u2019t want to say nothing too soon, so here we are.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shams Charania of ESPN.com reported last week that Boston and Minnesota were two other finalists for Lillard before he signed with Portland. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver a dozen teams made minimum and mid-level exception offers to Dame,\u201d Charania said last week on NBA Today.\u201d \u201cTwo teams in particular, I\u2019m told, that Damian Lillard really considered: Celtics and the Timberwolves. He held calls with both teams at different points, but to be in Portland, back home with his three young kids, was by far the most important factor in his return to the Trail Blazers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blazers signed Lillard, who is rehabbing from a torn Achilles, to a three-year deal worth $42 million that also includes a player option and a no-trade clause. That offer far surpassed any deal Boston could have presented Lillard since the team was limited to just the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.6 million) and even that type of deal would have required some additional trade to cut payroll to get Boston well below the second apron.<\/p>\n

Jayson Tatum was reportedly taking part in Boston\u2019s recruiting efforts<\/a> to entice Lillard to come to Boston amid his own recovery from a torn Achilles. Ultimately, it appears Boston never really had a chance to land the 35-year-old who will spend the season rehabbing in Portland before joining a backcourt that includes Holiday, Scott Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe. <\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Celtics were reportedly one of the finalists for free agent star Damian Lillard before he opted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-21024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}