The offseason was filled with uncertainty for the Portland Trail Blazers as they navigated Damian Lillard’s trade request, ultimately resulting in his departure to the Milwaukee Bucks.
After over two months of negotiations with the Miami Heat that yielded no agreement, Lillard expressed openness to remaining in Portland. However, Trail Blazers’ general manager Joe Cronin was resolute in the decision to move forward.
In a recent interview with Ben Golliver of the Washington Post, Cronin shed light on the challenging offseason and Lillard’s omission of him from his farewell letter to Portland.
“[Lillard] and I went through it this summer,” Cronin explained to Ben Golliver of the Washington Post. “It wasn’t always amicable and perfect. To be omitted from that [letter], I didn’t take as anything more than it being a hard summer that we had both gone through. I wasn’t one to be thanked at that moment.”
Cronin emphasized that their respective directions didn’t align, despite both parties having the shared intention of building a championship contender around Lillard.
“We had pure intentions in our desire to build a winner around him,” Cronin stated. “We were just unable to pull it off. I don’t think that was a lie. We just couldn’t get it done.”
