Damian Lillard Won't Play Unless Blazers Have Shot At Playoffs

Damian Lillard will refuse to play if the NBA resumes the 19-20 season with the Portland Trail Blazers unable to reach the playoffs.

\"If we come back and they\'re just like, \'We\'re adding a few games to finish the regular season,\' and they\'re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don\'t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I\'m going to be with my team because I\'m a part of the team. But I\'m not going to be participating. I\'m telling you that right now. And you can put that [expletive] in there,\" Lillard told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday morning via phone.

The Blazers are29-37 and in the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference trailing the Memphis Grizzlies by 3.5 games.

\"If we come back and I don\'t have an opportunity to make the playoffs, I will show up to work, I\'ll be at practice and I\'ll be with my team. I\'m going to do all that [expletive] and then I\'m going to be sitting right on that bench during the games,\" Lillard told Yahoo Sports. \"If they come back and say it\'s something like a tournament, play-in style, between the No. 7 and No. 12 seeds, if we\'re playing for playoff spots, then I think that\'s perfect.\"

If the Blazers do have an opportunity to reach the playoffs, Lillard is optimistic about their odds.

\"It would suck not to get in the playoffs because our thing was, we had fought ourselves back into position to get a spot,\" Lillard told Yahoo Sports. \"We had our starting center and starting power forward coming back, so we had a lot to look forward to and for a great reason. Now, they\'re healthy and have extra time to train and rehab while everybody\'s rusty. So now, they won\'t be coming back as the only rusty players. And if everybody\'s rusty, [expletive], we can come in here and beat everybody. I do feel like if we do come back and our mind is right, we can beat anyone. It\'s going to be hard to get going with no fans, you\'ve been off all this time and some people are just ready for summer like, ‘[Expletive] it, I haven\'t played in a long time and the season is basically over to me. Do I really care like I cared before?\' It\'s going to be a lot of those factors going on and that presents a lot of room for a team to sneak some [expletive]. Like, really mess around and knock some teams off and then, \'Oh, they\'re in the Western Conference finals.\' It\'s room for that with this situation. So the fact that it\'s possible and we wouldn\'t get an opportunity at that, that\'s weak to me. I ain\'t getting no younger.\"