It made sense that Damian Lillard was a popular man when he unexpectedly hit the free agent market for the first time in his career earlier this summer. The Milwaukee Bucks waived Lillard in a move no one saw coming as they scrambled to retool around Giannis Antetokounmpo following Lillard tearing his Achilles this past postseason. Even taking that serious injury into account, a player of Lillard's talent and resume very rarely becomes a free agent. So it wasn't surprising that several teams were almost immediately rumored to have interest in the All-NBA scorer.
Just how much interest did Lillard garner? It turns out far more than anybody could reasonably expect. After the star point guard shocked the NBA world and signed with the Portland Trail Blazers, ESPN's Shams Charania reported Lillard turned down dozens of offers from NBA teams that ranged from minimum contracts to the midlevel exception salary of about $14 million annually.
