All along, we all thought Damian Lillard was on his way to the Miami Heat. The Milwaukee Bucks somehow pulled off the coup of the summer, and the rest, as they say, is history.
At one point in the summer, it became clear to Dame and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, that the Heat trade just wasn’t going to happen. They had to explore other options. Milwaukee emerged as a natural second option for Lillard.
Damian Lillard Reveals First Conversation About Milwaukee Bucks Trade
According to Lillard, it was his agent who first brought up the prospect of moving to Milwaukee. The idea wasn’t at all foreign for Dame at that point, though, considering how he’d already toyed with the idea of playing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in the past.
“As he got into it, my agent called me and he was like, what about Milwaukee? Obviously Giannis, it’s public record that I’ve always mentioned if I had to team up with one person it would be him,” Lillard said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “So when we talked about it I told him I would definitely be interested in that, obviously. He was just like, OK, and I could tell he kind of put it in his back pocket. Obviously in these situations you never control completely how things end up or where you end up going. So, it came about and it was an option and it was like press play, why not? Why pass up on that type of opportunity? So, it as something that came up I would say two weeks ago and I was interested in that for sure.”
A lot of credit needs to be given to Aaron Goodwin as well for the role he played in Lillard’s move to the Bucks. According to reports, Goodwin did not exactly see eye-to-eye with Portland’s front office, which may have ultimately played a key role in his botched move to Miami.
Milwaukee supporters aren’t complaining about that one bit.
Major Stumbling Block
Lillard did not have a straightforward path to the Bucks, though — at least not at the onset. The Blazers were demanding a major haul in exchange for their cornerstone superstar but for their part, Milwaukee reportedly had no intention of giving up their entire roster in exchange for Dame.
Eventually, the Bucks agreed to part ways with Jrue Holiday, Grayson Allen, and thee future first-round draft picks in order to get their hands on Lillard. It was a substantial trade package which was too good to turn down for Portland.
Losing Holiday, in particular, was a significant blow for the Bucks, but at the end of the day, you just knew that Dame Lillard wasn’t going to come for cheap.
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