With the suspension of the NBA season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Portland Trail Blazers, like most of society, are trying to find ways to pass the time while also practicing social distancing. Here's a roundup of what some of the players have been doing during the two weeks since the cessation of games...
DAMIAN LILLARD
• With no games to be played, Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard is turning to one of his other pursuits: music. Lillard, aka Dame D.O.L.L.A typically spends some time in the studio every offseason, but with the NBA season postponed until some heretofore unknown date, he's laying down some tracks for a mixtape that he's hoping to put out in the near future. One of the featured artists? Shaq O'Neil, who Dame had a diss battle with before the start of the 2019-20 season...
• With "shelter in place" rules in effect for much of the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak, people are mostly confined to their homes, which is a bit of a mixed bag. Getting to spend a significant amount of time with family is great, but the boredom that comes with spending most of the last two weeks indoors can be hard to endure, even with a good quarantine crew. So people are coming up with ways to pass the hours, with one of those being the #SomethingNew challenge. Take it away, Lillard clan...
CJ MCCOLLUM
NBA players spend roughly two months on the road during the NBA regular season (my unofficial "time spent on the road" math: 41 games x 1.5 days per game = 61.5 days, though with the decrease of back-to-backs over the last few seasons, it's probably closer to 2.0 days per game) broken up over the course of of six months, which can make it difficult to do the sort of activities that require being close to home for an extended period of time. One such activity is raising a puppy, which anyone who has used vacation days in order to stay home with a new canine addition can tell you. So with at least a month of downtime (if not significantly more), Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum and his fiancé adopted a puppy...
• CJ is also fielding interview requests during the shelter in place order. He talked about the initial days after the suspension of the NBA season and his new role as a "full-time doggy dad" in a Q&A this week, though he's also making the rounds on television as well. Here's CJ talking with Richard Jefferson about potential scenarios once the NBA does return...
(I remember what happened the last time everyone thought the Trail Blazers were going to get rolled by the Lakers...)
And here's CJ on CBS Sports discussing what he's doing to stay in as good of shape as possible for the eventual return of games...
JUSUF NURKIĆ
• Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkić was only a few days away from making his triumphant return to the court when the NBA season was suspended, robbing the 7-0 center of his homecoming after a year of rehabbing a broken left leg. With plenty of time to reflect, Nurkić penned a post on Instagram on the inauspicious anniversary of his injury...
CARMELO ANTHONY
In his latest "Melo Monday" video, Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony gives his thoughts on the NBA's decision to suspend the season before taking a tour of winery Domaine Serene in Dayton...
HASSAN WHITESIDE
With schools closed until the end of April and many employers mandating employees work from home, parents all over Oregon and Washington are spending more time with their children, whether they want to or not. While that's not exactly the situation for Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside, he too is using the extra time at home to keep his skills sharp while also imparting some important lessons to his young son...