re: tOfficial Pels Coaching Search Thread (minor stein update re: Lee and Green)

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They started interviewing before us. Hopefully Griffin is more aggressive this time than the absurd process last time.

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Rumors are if the owner has her way its Hammon. She wants to be a "Trailblazer" in hiring the first female coach.

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Damian Lillard, how could you?

That’s a question many Portland Trail Blazers fans started asking after the franchise superstar made two shocking decisions late Friday evening.

First, Lillard announced to several reporters his two preferred choices for the Blazers’ next head coach. That’s something no Blazers player has ever done before—it’s vanishingly rare in the history of the NBA, period—and was a forceful demonstration of how much leverage Lillard holds over the Portland front office.

Second, he used that capital to recommend two candidates with documented histories of alleged domestic and sexual abuse.

Lillard’s top choice, Jason Kidd, accepted a plea deal for hitting his wife in 2001. During divorce proceedings, she also accused him of kicking her in the stomach while she was carrying his child.

Lillard’s second choice—and the candidate apparently preferred by the president of basketball operations, Neil Olshey—is Chauncey Billups. In 1997, Billups and a teammate were accused of rape, eventually settling the case in civil court for an undisclosed amount of money.

By Sunday morning, Kidd had withdrawn his name from consideration. It’s not clear if the revulsion expressed by Blazers fans on social media played a role in his decision. He said he didn’t want to place Lillard in “an awkward position” with the team, ESPN reported.

But Dame doesn’t escape unscathed. For a generation of fans who grew up with Lillard as a civic hero, the revelation about whom he reveres was crushing.

“The hardest part about all of this is that Damian Lillard, an incredibly active and philanthropic member of our community, is the one throwing these names out there,” says Ashtyn Butuso, a longtime Blazers fan and founder of Flagrant magazine, a women-created basketball publication. “Dame is a person too; it’s possible he just doesn’t understand how gruesome the allegations are.”

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Lillard’s second choice—and the candidate apparently preferred by the president of basketball operations, Neil Olshey—is Chauncey Billups. In 1997, Billups and a teammate were accused of rape, eventually settling the case in civil court for an undisclosed amount of money.

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But Dame doesn’t escape unscathed. For a generation of fans who grew up with Lillard as a civic hero, the revelation about whom he reveres was crushing.

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Portland has had/will have 3 second interviews with top candidates already.

We are unaware of even having 1st interviews.

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New Orleans has permission to interview Brooklyn assistant Jacque Vaughn and Milwaukee assistant Charles Lee for the franchise’s head coaching job, sources tell ESPN.

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