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CJ McCollum Gets The Walkoff Interview After His First Triple-Double

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Casey Holdahl

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PHOTOS » CJ McCollum Works Out In China

Greetings podcast enthusiasts. Between CJ McCollum getting an extension and Moe Harkless signing a new deal, Portland's roster for the start of the 2016-17 regular season is all but finalized. So it seemed like a good time to hit the studio with Joe Freeman of The Oregonian/OregonLive.com to record yet another edition of the Rip City Report podcast, which you can listen to below...

On this edition, we discuss the near-max extension for McCollum and the four-year, roughly $40 million contract for Harkless, which directions Terry Stotts might go in terms of starting lineups and minutes allocations, the news that both Al-Farouq Aminu and Festus Ezeli will forego playing for Nigeria at the 2016 Summer Olympics, give a quick rundown of the preseason schedule and answer your Twitter-submitted questions.

You can find the Rip City Report on Soundcloud, iTunes and Stitcher. Thanks as always for listening.

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Podcast: The Rip City Report, Finalized Roster Edition

Last weekend, Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum and his older brother, Errick, were guests on ESPN's SportsCenter to discuss, amongst other things, The Basketball Tournament, which is billed as a "open application, 5-on-5, single-elimination, winner-take-all basketball tournament" in which the winning team takes home $2 million in prize money. Errick's team, Overseas Elite, won the tournament last year and are in the finals, which airs Tuesday at 4 PM Pacific on ESPN, again this year.

But the tournament wasn't the only topic of conversation, as any time you get two brothers together, you're contractually obligated to ask them which is mom's favorite. One one had, CJ still lives with his mom, so you might assume he's the got the No. 1 son ranking sewn up, but it sounds like Errick was the much better behaved child and mom's tend to have long memories, so it sounds like it's a bit of a tossup. 

"CJ, he was a good kid," said Errick, "he just liked to get into things. He was really physical. She couldn't take him around any other kids or he would, like, get into little altercations with them because he just played too rough."

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VIDEO: McCollum Brothers Talk Tournament, Who's Mom's Favorite on ESPN

The relationship between Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver predates both of their current occupations. When the two first sat down for a interview back in 2010, McCollum had not yet been drafted by the Trail Blazers with the 10th overall pick of the 2012 Draft (though that would happen later that night) and Silver, while already tabbed to take over for outgoing commissioner David Stern, was still pulling duty as deputy commissioner.

Every year since then, McCollum and Silver have met up in New York City after the end of the season to discuss topics pertaining to the NBA and society in general. In 2014, they discussed the situation with the previous Los Angeles Clippers ownership, the age limit, emerging technologies, Silver's first year as the NBA's head honcho and their favorite Jay-Z tracks. In 2015, McCollum, armed with a few seasons of experience and a new job at The Players' Tribune, followed up on some of the questions from the year before regarding the age limit while also bringing up issues such as ads on jerseys, transparency in officiating and head injuries.

And in their fourth annual interview, released on The Players' Tribune as a part of McCollum's summer internship with the athlete-owned website, the two discuss how far they've come (or in CJ's case, how much weight he's lost) since their first meeting in 2012, Silver's handshakes, whether the NBA would have their All-Star Weekend at "remote locations" like the NFL, whether the league is considering moving the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, the 2016 NBA Finals and the suspension of Draymond Green and recent efforts to increase diversity in NBA front offices. You can watch an excerpt of the interview in the above video, or read the entire Q&amp;A over at The Players' Tribune.

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VIDEO: McCollum And Commissioner Silver Have Their Yearly Reunion

Though Lillard was able to play through the injury after missing seven games in late December, the pain caused by the plantar fasciitis in his left foot never really went away. He received treatment on his foot throughout the season, though the most effective approach to the injury, which causes extreme pain on the bottom of the foot and heel, is rest, which is obviously hard to get when you're the leader and best player on a team trying to make the postseason. By forgoing the month-long lead up to the Olympics and the Games themselves, Lillard should have the recuperation time he'll need to go into Portland's 2016 training camp completely healthy.

Charnania is also reporting that Lillard was hoping for more time to make the decision before being pressed by Team USA for a commitment one way or another. This could very well be true, though if being completely healthy and rested for the start of the 2016-17 NBA season is Lillard's motivation for declining a Team USA invite, it's hard to figure how another week or two would change his decision.

Lillard initially declined being a part of the pool that Team USA draws their roster from, though he ultimately relented despite not feeling particularly optimistic about his chances of being named to the Olympic team after being passed over for the FIBA World Cup team in 2014. But between players opting to rest in preparation for the upcoming season and the myriad of concerns regarding the 2016 Games, the number of candidates has dwindled to the point where Lillard would have been a lock to make the Olympic team had he chosen to participate.

But Lillard opting for rest over Rio doesn't mean you won't have a Trail Blazer to root for during the Olympics, as Al-Farouq Aminu and the rest of Team Nigeria (a team that also includes former Trail Blazer Ike Diogu and former Oregon Duck Chamberlain Oguchi) have qualified for the 2016 Games after winning AfroBasket 2015 in Tunisia. And CJ McCollum has also been invited to play on the USA Select Team, whose purpose is to help the USA National Team prepare for international events, though players from the Select team have been promoted to the National team, with the most recent example being Mason Plumlee making the 2014 World Cup team.

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Damian Lillard To Forego 2016 Olympics

When asked during exit interviews about the report stating that he had been invited to play for the USA's Select Team, which helps the Men's National Team train for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum said, "I would love to be a part of Team USA basketball."

That feeling is evidently mutual, as USA Basketball officially announced on Tuesday that McCollum was one of 25 players chosen for the Select Team that will scrimmage against the Team USA roster in Las Vegas in mid-July during their preparation for the upcoming games in Rio.

"It's and honor and a privilege to be chosen to represent the USA, especially in this setting," said McCollum via text. "A step in the right direction."

Though it's unlikely that playing on the Select Team will result in a chance to compete internationally this year -- Mason Plumlee started on the Select Team that helped prepare Team USA for the 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball before eventually being named to the roster for that competition -- the invitation means that McCollum is now taken the first step to potentially making the National Team in the future.

“Being chosen for the Select Team is an honor and it is an important step in becoming involved in USA Basketball’s National Team program in the future," said USA Basketball National Team managing director Jerry Colangelo via press release. "Current national team players like Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, as well as many other outstanding players, got their USA National Team start through a Select Team."

McCollum, who won the 2016 Most Improved Player award after averaging 20.8 points on 45 percent shooting from the field and 42 percent shooting from three, 4.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 34.8 minutes per game this season, joins the likes of Emmanuel Mudiay, Devin Booker, Kentavious Caldewell-Pope, Zach Lavine, Doug McDermott, Jabari Parker, Marcus Smart and Cody Zeller on the Select Team, which will be coached by Gregg Popovich, who is taking over for current Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski after the 2016 Olympics, former Trail Blazer and current Spurs assistant Ime Udoka and Villanova head coach Jay Wright.

The USA Select Team will train with Team USA from July 18-21 at the Mendenhall Center on the campus of UNLV before a friendly versus Argentina on July 22. The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro start August 5.

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McCollum Picked To Help Team USA Train For Upcoming Olympics

For the last year, the folks over at Bleacher Report have been producing an animated NBA-themed spoof of the popular HBO show "Game Of Thrones" (shoutout to Hodor), which they have cleverly titled "Game Of Zones." The episodes tie in NBA events (loosely) to some of the story arcs from the show and are all clever enough to be worth watching, even if the Trail Blazers have never been featured.

Until today! In the newest playoff themed edition of "Game Of Zones," Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Mason Plumlee, who play for "The Brotherhood With One Banner," a sendup of The Brotherhood With No Banners from the show to come across a couple of Timberwolves frightened and alone in the forest.

The rest of the episode features James Harden and Dwight Howard as defense-averse Dornish royalty and LeBron James and Kyrie Irving being attacked by Detroit's "Stone Men" while boating through Valyria. If none of that makes any sense to you, pat yourself on the back for not wasting an hour a week watching the show and roughly $50 a month for an HBO subscription.

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VIDEO: Blazers The 'Brotherhood Of One Banner' In New 'Game Of Zones'

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