Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard has been mentioned in trade rumors more frequently this offseason than any in his 11-year career. Most link him to the Heat, a team in need of backcourt help to take the next steps after winning the Eastern Conference title.
Lillard, usually quick to spell out his intense loyalty to Portland, has done little to dissolve these rumors—and in fact may have stoked them even more Friday night.
The seven-time All-Star filmed himself smiling and laughing on Instagram Live while listening to "Miami," Will Smith's 1997 Billboard top-20 hit, in a French nightclub. Lillard's agent, Aaron Goodwin, was quick to rebuke any connection between the song choice and a potential Miami trade.
"The music was just a coincidence,” Goodwin told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “Damian’s not disrespectful. He’s not an instigator, so he’s not going to do anything out of character. There would be no reason for him to do that. … It’s a funny coincidence that a DJ would put that on.”
As Amick observed, Lillard's Instagram Live also included Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," a song that contains the lyric, "I wanna feel the heat with somebody."
Trail Blazers fans can only hope future Lillard Instagram Lives include Drake, Quavo and Travis Scott's 2017 hit "Portland."
