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Mar 10, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Blazers’ Damian Lillard Gets Honest About All-Star Teammate’s Departure

Originally posted on Portland Trail Blazers on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Sep 20, 2025 12:50 PM ET

Just one season after he helped the Portland Trail Blazers win their first playoff round in 14 years, Damian Lillard saw free agent All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge jump ship to the San Antonio Spurs.

Portland did manage to effectively pivot its offense, somewhat, re-centering its scoring around Lillard and backcourt mate CJ McCollum.

That team got as far as the 2019 Western Conference Finals, but without the frontcourt scoring of Aldridge, it did have a cap on its ceiling.

On a new installment of his revived YouTube documentary series "License To Lillard," the nine-time All-Star point guard explained how a communication breakdown led to a bitter split with Aldridge.

"So I walk out of the meeting with [the front office] and I'm just like, '"Is our relationship salvageable," why would they ask me that?' So I'm walking to the car, call LA [Aldridge]. I'm like, 'L, what's up?' He's like, 'What's up bruh?' I'm like, 'We're supposed to be coming to meet you, why are they asking me [about our relationship?'" Lillard said.

Essentially, it sounds like bad faith rumors killed their relationship, convincing Aldridge that Lillard was trying to essentially stage a coup and assume a primary leadership role over Aldridge, five years his senior and the more established star at the time.

"He's like, 'Man, I'm hearing people saying it's your team, and they're telling me it's my team, and they're gonna do this and all this other stuff. I don't know who's saying what, so it's too late now. I'm [going to] move on.' That's what he's saying to me on the phone. I'm like, 'All right, bruh, I thought everything was smooth, I didn't even know none of this stuff existed.' So we get off the phone. Shortly after that, it came out, he signed with the Spurs."

Aldridge's Spurs Success Sans Lillard

Aldridge went on to advance as far as the 2017 Western Conference Finals along with All-NBA teammate Kawhi Leonard, but never won it all in San Antonio, either, before Leonard was shipped to the Toronto Raptors and instantly claimed his second title.

"I was more confused because I'd never even been in their offices before today, so it had to be just rumors of people saying that they're telling Dame one thing and you something," Lillard said. "It took for us to be on different teams for four years for me to talk to him like, 'Bruh, they never said nothing about no team or none of that to me.' I never even had no conversations with him outside of when I see him at the arena or at practice on the court and they shake my hand, like, 'How is everything?' We finally got to the bottom of it, it was really just other people saying stuff."