Ownership came close to firing Terry Stotts, several sources say. Teams with head-coaching vacancies, including Phoenix, began engaging third parties about Stotts' potential interest in their jobs, sources say.
But the Blazers didn't break. Lillard fought for Stotts. "I was asked what I thought, and I just said I love him as a coach," Lillard says. "We all love him." (They show it, too. When Stotts moved into third place on Portland's all-time win list last season,
CJ McCollum bought him an $1,800 bottle of Bordeaux.)
Neil Olshey, the team's GM, fought even harder. They haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but entering their seventh year together, Stotts and Olshey have developed an understanding: Olshey stays away from players who don't fit Stotts' style, and Stotts coaches what he gets. The players will never see them at odds in any serious, prolonged way. There is no taking sides in Portland because there are no sides at the highest levels.