Portland Trail Blazers forward Trevor Ariza admitted that he didn’t want to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, when Ariza was traded to the Los Angeles team back in 2007.
“First, I am going back home to my momma! It was kinda.. weird. I didn’t really want to play for the Lakers, I wanted to play for the Clippers. That is what I told the GM, at the time,” Ariza said on a recent podcast with former NBA players Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the “Knuckleheads” podcast.
Ariza explained that, back then, he feared of the lack of playing time in a title contender roster that was including Lamar Odom and Metta World Peace. Looking back in that time, the trade really worked out for the “3&D” forward. He won an NBA championship with the Lakers in 2009 playing along with one of the NBA greats Kobe Bryant.
