NBA: Portland Star Guard Won't Sell Out And Leave Blazers

Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers could be the next NBA star to jump ship even if he did sign a four-year $196 million deal last month. At the rate things are going right now, supermax contracts are no assurance that players will stick to their current teams for long.

However, the 29-year-old guard seems pretty much content in Portland and has no plans of bailing out on the Blazers. The four-time NBA All-Star has repeatedly said that he wants to be the greatest and longest-tenured players in Rip City, NBA.com reported. And it appears that stance remains to this day, meaning hoop fans may not see Lillard teaming up with other established NBA superstars to win a title.

The 6th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft reiterated that once more in an interview with Complex. He touched on the tumultuous offseason where several superstars made the jump and joined forces. The most notable ones include the move of Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers as well as the coming of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to the Los Angeles Clippers.

"I don’t have a problem with that, but the way I see stuff is, like, I don’t prefer to go that route. Just like they’re choosing to do this stuff for their career, I’m choosing to do what I want for mine, too,” said Lillard.

Lillard does not deny that teaming up with some other guys will make the path towards the NBA title easier. For him, he questions the challenge and fun towards achieving that goal of winning a title -- something all NBA players would cover in their pro basketball career.

“I wanna be the one that embodies all of those things and then be a part of the rise from ‘we haven’t won since ’77, and now we won, and Dame’s everything to our city.’ I just am who I am, and that fits here,” he said.

Portland made significant progress last season when they reached the Western Conference Finals. It was their first time to reach that far and Lillard opted to continue playing despite a rib injury. For the coming season, he is in good company. C.J. McCollum is still there to help out and there are new faces in the mix. That includes Hassan Whiteside and Pau Gasol who are expected to fill in the middle which was a waterloo for them in the last NBA playoffs.