Neil Olshey Clarifies Damian Lillard's Role in Coaching Search
Damian Lillard would have preferred the Trail Blazers' coaching search to be over before it began. Less than two hours after Portland announced it had parted ways with Terry Stotts, the only head coach he's known during his nine-year NBA career, Lillard was already on the record with who we wanted as Stotts' replacement.
Jason Kidd, of course, withdrew from consideration for the Blazers' coaching vacancy on Saturday morning – perhaps succumbing to immediate and sustained pressure from fans about his well-documented history of domestic abuse. Chauncey Billups, Lillard's second pre-approved choice, is reportedly still in the running for Portland's job, but also has a troubling past of alleged violence against women.
Four days after Stotts' departure, the Blazers' hiring process is still in its infancy, regardless of Lillard's wants and desires.
"We have not reached out to a single candidate yet. Not one," Portland general manager Neil Olshey said on Monday. "We haven't reached out to a team to express interest or ask for permission. I don't think it's fair to teams when they're in the first round of the playoffs to do that, and until we were able to reach out to the entire candidate list, we weren't reaching out to anyone."
But just because Lillard's handpicked coach won't be coming to Rip City and his backup choice is ostensibly on a list that includes "anywhere from 20-25 candidates," according to Olshey, hardly means Portland's franchise player hasn't been in recent communication with the front office.
Lillard, in fact, was aware of the Blazers' separation with Stotts before pretty much anyone but the parties directly involved in the decision.
"Once I informed Terry," Olshey said, "the first phone call was to Dame prior to it being made public so that he would be the first to know that the decision had been made to make a coaching change."
Don't mistake Olshey's call to Lillard for outright deference, though. He even solicited Lillard's input for potential successors to Stotts.
As for Lillard going public with his preference for Kidd and Billups? That was "unfortunate" to Olshey, at least in part because of the local backlash that ensued when their names were initially floated.
"I called Dame to let him know we were making a coaching change, kinda told him the model for what we were looking at in terms of profile, the kind of candidates we'd be looking at," Olshey said. "And I said, 'Hey, if you have any names let me know,' and he gave me a couple of names. It's unfortunate that it was made public, because I think it actually didn't serve some of the guys whose were thrown out there, it certainly didn't serve them well in the ensuing 48 hours."
The buck stops with Jody Allen and the front office – Olshey made that much clear during his Monday presser, and recent reporting indicates Lillard knows it. But as Portland embarks on finding its next coach, expect Lillard's opinion to carry significant weight regardless.
"In all things, like I said, Damian is an integral part of our decision-making at all times," Olshey said.