Stu’s Notes: Damian Lillard and Blazers Fans Need to Settle Down

Damian Lillard’s relationship with Portland has gotten weird. It’s become too much. It’s making me uncomfortable. We’re more aware of this, because we just saw how it eventually worked out with Matthew Stafford and Detroit, but what we’re seeing with Damian Lillard and Portland is not sustainable.

Last night, Lillard returned to Portland, and it was an emotional homecoming. Understandably, Lillard had a lot of feelings about the place where he spent the first eleven years of his career. Understandably, the crowd gave him a raucously warm welcome. All of this was fair. Moving for some, I’m sure, and understandably so. Then…then it got to be too much.

For one thing, Blazers fans were cheering for Lillard to score. They weren’t cheering for the Blazers to not score, and they weren’t cheering for other Bucks to score, but when Lillard put the ball in the hoop, Blazers fans were excited. Many Blazers fans were, in a narrow way, cheering against their own team.

Then, there were Lillard’s comments about one day returning to Portland:

“Right now, I’m just in a space of like, this is where I am now. I’m in Milwaukee. I wanted the opportunity to contend, and our team has an opportunity to contend for this year and years to come, and I’m just living in that. But I definitely, when I was traded, I see a day where I’ll be in a Trail Blazer uniform again before I’m done.”

I don’t know that it should work like that.

I get the temptation. It feels better to not finalize the goodbye. If it one day happens, no, there’s nothing wrong with it happening. But if Lillard wants to retire a Blazer…maybe he shouldn’t have requested a trade? What Lillard and Blazers fans are saying they want—Lillard to get a ring elsewhere and then return to Portland to play out his days—is like a couple divorcing because of one partner’s infertility with a plan to, once the fertile partner has procreated, reunite. It’s not at that level—this is basketball, not the creation of human life—but it’s weird! It’s strange.

What the Stafford experience with Detroit showed was that eventually, you do have to move on. Eventually, Blazers fans need to be Blazers fans again. It’s fine to give your guy standing ovations. It’s fine to cheer for him to win. But not against your own team! Give him the ovation. Get a little misty. Then, be a Blazers fan for the rest of the night. And don’t do what the Lions fans did who treated Stafford’s Rams Super Bowl as their own. That child is not yours.

Saleh vs. Hackett

Speaking of losers, we have more thoughts on that Rosenblatt/Russini article about how dysfunctional the Jets became after giving total control of their franchise to Aaron Rodgers. Specifically, we think we were too light on Nathaniel Hackett yesterday.

We were always kind of pro-Hackett on this site. We thought the preseason expectations for his Broncos were ridiculous, and that while he wasn’t a good head coach, plenty of coaches had gotten away with worse performance. We especially thought this once Sean Payton talked so much unprovoked shit about him. Sean Payton is not a great coach himself. Even if he was: What the hell, man?

So, we were kind of rooting for a Hackett comeback, and we had some hope that this Jets arrangement would work out well for him. The problem is: It doesn’t sound like he wants to be a coach?

We did touch on this yesterday, through the lens of Hackett deferring to Rodgers on play calls during training camp. Reading the article again, though (we’re up to five or six readings now, the thing is hilarious), we’re noticing anew: Hackett doesn’t make any decisions.

We’re judging this from a long, long ways away. We obviously don’t know what Hackett wants. We’re relying on a lot of isolated data points and forming a conclusion that is very much just a theory. But what we know about Hackett is that he worked under Doug Marrone for a little bit after miscellaneous assistant gigs, and that he then got the Packers’ offensive coordinator job in 2019 when Matt LaFleur became head coach. From that, he became the Broncos’ head coach. From that, he rapidly became an offensive coordinator again, this time with the Jets, an apparent carrot for the team trying to put all its eggs into Aaron Rodgers’s basket.

We don’t know a whole lot about Hackett’s performance in the Marrone years. We didn’t follow those Bills or those Jaguars particularly closely. We will say, though: From 2019 through now, Hackett hasn’t had to make a lot of decisions. He doesn’t seem to want to make them. In Green Bay, he worked between Aaron Rodgers—an opinionated quarterback—and Matt LaFleur—an offensive coach. In New York, he works under Rodgers, and when Zach Wilson became the quarterback, Hackett reportedly made few adjustments and, later in the year, approached the job as practice for when Rodgers returns. In between those roles, in the almost-year he spent in Denver, Hackett’s whole problem was struggling to make decisions! His game management was terrible, and he gave Russell Wilson loads of power that Sean Payton then immediately tried to take away.

Hackett might be a great offensive mind. I don’t know. But he doesn’t seem like he wants any authority. In some roles, that’s fine. Maybe he’d be a good assistant in a more consultant-like role. As an offensive coordinator or a head coach, though…yikes.

So, as we diagnose the Jets’ issues from afar, let us add that while Robert Saleh looks like a dumb loser, Nathaniel Hackett appears to be a guy who doesn’t want to do the jobs he keeps accepting. Each of the two most important people in the Jets’ organization are in a role one level above where they fit. I can’t fathom why it hasn’t worked out yet.

Is Sean Miller Ok?

From Sean Miller’s press conference after Xavier beat St. John’s last night:

“I really credit our players. It’s not easy to go through what we went through in Hartford. You know, they beat us so bad that you wondered if you would ever be able to play basketball or win a basketball game again. I mean, no matter who you were on that trip, you had to be filled with some doubt, simply because of how out of hand that game was. I mean, I thought we kept it as close as we could. It could have been worse. So, once that ends, you know, you don’t have a crystal ball on exactly how it’s gonna go, and (it) could go really bad.”

This is what Dan Hurley is doing to the Big East. His is a reign of terror. Someone must arise and challenge the monster in Storrs.

Kiffin’s Corner

It’s been a big week for Lane Kiffin.

• He shared on Tuesday that he was celebrating three years of sobriety.
• His program’s transfer portal activity is grading out as the best in the nation.
• A judge dismissed the lawsuit brought against him by a former player.
• He reportedly hired a guy named Glasscock.

Glasscock is not this man’s first name—it’s his last name, his first name is Billy—but Kiffin did hire Billy Glasscock today, plucking him from Steve Sarkisian here at Texas to serve as a “general manager” for the Mississippi program, working on player personnel. This explains why Kiffin was posting pictures last night from the private jet airport over by Manor. Lane Kiffin is everywhere. There are a lot of stories about college coaches getting sick of the NIL/portal-driven grind. Lane Kiffin does not appear to be getting sick of anything. We might be entering a Lane Kiffin era in college sports.

Etc.

The NIT, other college hoops:

• Chris Collins stole the show last night, getting ejected in the closing seconds of Northwestern’s near-upset of Purdue. I missed most of the game (I sometimes tutor on Wednesdays), so this next part isn’t about Northwestern vs. Purdue specifically, but: I don’t think free throw disparities are a bad thing. I think a worse thing is refs trying to keep fouls even. This is kind of what last year’s Tennessee team did: They beat the shit out of people physically and relied on refs feeling self-conscious about calling an imbalanced number of fouls. They bullied their way to a shift in the rules. Again, I don’t know what happened with Zach Edey vs. one of the smaller Power Six teams, but free throws shouldn’t be perfectly balanced. They’re not a random variable.
• UAB got a big win at North Texas, and while UNT would like to have about eight different plays back, we’re excited for the Blazers. We haven’t seen much of the defending runners-up so far this year, but we’d love for them to get in the mix.
• Memphis, ranked tenth in the AP Poll as recently as eleven days ago, is in freefall and is probably going to miss the NIT. Has Memphis been playing worse? Yes. But the AP Poll is also broken. We need a fix. It should be so useful and it isn’t useful at all. Part of why college basketball is losing some cachet is that the AP Poll is meaningless.
• Rutgers took a bad loss to Penn State, and while we welcome Penn State to the fringe of NIT relevance, that’s a bad loss for the Scarlet Knights. I would like someone to explain Steve Pikiell’s program to me. It seems like it rocks at recruiting right now but is also known for in-game grit but also is underperforming its present talent? Make it make sense.
• Cincinnati fans shouldn’t get too cocky, even after losing to WVU. Road losses don’t put you in the NIT. You have to lose at home for that, and Cincinnati has only lost twice on its new floor. Up those numbers, Bearcats!
• As prophesied by men’s golf, New Mexico hinted at the NIT last night, falling at home to Boise State as Max Rice did terroristic things to the Broncos’ own NIT dreams. The Mountain West is………………bumpy and rocky.
• I’m not trying to be mean, but the Pac-12 is too bad to give us good games. The Pac-12 is not pulling its Thursday night weight. This evening, last-place USC hosts Oregon, and everything else is less compelling. When the Washingtons and the mountain schools don’t play, the Pac-12 is rough.

Chicago:

• The Bulls beat the Hornets. Coby White’s breakout continues. I still think trading anybody is a good idea if you can get something good for them, because the Bulls are so far away from contention, but it would be funny if the front office said, “Hey, let’s trade Coby White so we can build around Zach LaVine.” Let’s double down on the thing that doesn’t work. (The NBA and NHL All-Star Weekends should be the same. Their separation is terribly confusing to me.)

Joe Kelly, Burnley, and the Sens:

• It was a big day yesterday for Joe Kelly. In addition to the Jack in the Box visit, he crip walked at an assembly at Corona High School (while also donating some money to his alma mater). Related news: He’s been driving the Porsche.
• There might be some last-minute transfer stuff going on with Burnley? The window closes or closed today, I think. We’ll theoretically try to circle back on that tomorrow. Theoretically.
• The Sens went into the break with a win, taking down the Red Wings in overtime. Was it the biggest win in Senators history? I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying no. Gigantic win for the fellas. They never let Detroit have possession in OT. And, as we talked about yesterday, they are now not alone in last place in the Eastern Conference. It’s a tie again.