Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic during an interview with Klix.ba in Bosnia said he would leave Portland if Damian Lillard were traded.
On Sunday, a Yahoo Sports report said that the negative reaction to the Blazers hiring coach Chauncey Billups, accused of rape in 1997, and the team’s inability to build a contender around Lillard, could cause him to seek to leave the Blazers.
“I don’t know what has changed with Lillard in these two days,” Nurkic said, according to a translation tool. “As far as I know, the man stays there, but if he goes, then I leave Portland as well. My opinion is that it would be stupid to let such a loyal man as Lillard go.”
Nurkic has one non-guaranteed year, worth $12 million, remaining on his contract. The Blazers have until August to pick up the team option or pay Nurkic $4 million, allowing him to become a free agent.
Billups will be introduced as the new coach at noon Tuesday and has reportedly signed a five-year contract, with four years guaranteed and a club option for the fifth year.
Lillard has received some blowback from fans upset that the Blazers are hiring Billups, named by Lillard as one of two candidates he wanted shortly after the team and Terry Stotts agreed to part ways on June. 4. Billups was never charged in the 1997 incident. In 2000, Billups and two other men settled a civil lawsuit filed by their accuser.
After the Blazers’ season-ending loss to Denver in Game 6 of a first-round playoff series, Nurkic expressed his displeasure with his role on the team and was noncommittal when asked if he expected to return next season.
“In the last game of the season, I said that change must happen,” Nurkic said during the interview in Bosnia. “In four years, we only had one West final, which is relatively small for a team like Portland. There are people above you to decide who will stay and who to bring, because the NBA is the biggest business there is. … As far as I am concerned, I was told that no one will be traded and that only the coach will change.”
