Following years of disfunction and poor basketball, the New York Knicks are now viewed as a laughingstock of the NBA. But maybe things would have been different if the team managed to pull off a trade for Portland Trail Blazers’ superstar Damian Lillard.
Lillard recently took part in a Q&A session with Vanity Fair, and the interviewer Lisa Robinson mentioned his affection for the Knicks at one point. The 29-year-old All-Star followed that up with a surprising remark, admitting that he thought he’d be traded to New York a few years ago.
“I thought I was headed there a few years ago; I was hearing trade rumors,” said Lillard. “The Garden is my favorite place to play.”
Lillard didn’t follow up on the remark, so we don’t know how close he was to playing in Madison Square Garden.
There is a possibility that Damian Lillard is referencing to the summer of 2018. At the time, Lillard was reportedly frustrated with Portland’s inability to compete for a title and was looking for a way out. A list of the potential destinations included the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks.
Trail Blazers ended up convincing Lillard to stay and later signed him to a super-max extension that will keep him with the franchise through 2025. Knicks, on the other hand, are still without a star in the Garden.
