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Dan Orlovsky looked better running out of the back of the end zone. The former longtime backup quarterback, who called Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard “a spoiled and entitled brat,” for threatening to sit out the rest of a potentially shortened NBA season if given no route to reaching the playoffs, quickly apologized for …
Dan Orlovsky looked better running out of the back of the end zone.
The former longtime backup quarterback, who called Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard “a spoiled and entitled brat,” for threatening to sit out the rest of a potentially shortened NBA season if given no route to reaching the playoffs, quickly apologized for his comments after Lillard angrily called out the analyst on Twitter.
“Entitled and spoiled? Mf watch yo mouth,” Lillard tweeted. “My background, family, and character couldn’t be further FROM entitled and spoiled. I said what I said!”
Lillard, a five-time All-Star who has led Portland to the playoffs the past six seasons, then reminded Orlovsky that he rarely had to risk his health, starting a total of 12 games in 12 NFL seasons.
“You sat out ya whole career basically 🤷🏽♂️,” Lillard tweeted.
Orlovsky, now a football analyst for ESPN, quickly backed off.
“No you’re right I was wrong to use that phrase at the end. That’s my bad,” he tweeted. “My comment started with saying I hope we all realize nothing is meaningless anymore. And if it’s about protecting loved ones-100%. I shouldn’t have said entitled or brat and that’s on me and my bad.”
Orlovsky initially declared that Lillard was selfish for refusing to play basketball, when so many workers in more dangerous and essential — and less profitable — fields don’t have the same option.
“There’s people out there that have to go do things,” Orlosvsky said on ESPN’s “Get Out”. “Front-line workers and nurses and doctors, they have to go to work, and they have to work more hours and get paid less because of what we’re dealing with. … How can you sit there and go, ‘nope, I’m not going to play,’ but understand that there’s people out there that don’t have that choice? They have to go to work. They have to go earn their money.
“I struggle with sitting here and going you don’t come off — in some way — a spoiled and entitled brat by saying, ‘I’m not going to play.’”
Orlovsky’s apology wasn’t sufficient to Lillard.
“Go back on TV w @realskipbayless and tell all those viewers that. And tell skip I can answer his question as well ‘what have I done’ since y’all got so much to say. And I don’t know either one of y’all.”
Again, Orlovsky apologized.
“And that’s why I told you I was wrong to say that. 100% on me and you have my public apology. I shouldn’t have said that. I can’t speak for anyone but me but I’m sorry, that’s my bad, and I was wrong,” Orlovsky responded.
With the Trail Blazers (29-37) currently sitting ninth in the Western Conference, their biggest star told Yahoo Sports earlier this week that he wouldn’t return to play during a pandemic without a path to the playoffs.
“If we come back and they’re just like, ‘We’re adding a few games to finish the regular season,’ and they’re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don’t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I’m going to be with my team because I’m a part of the team. But I’m not going to be participating. I’m telling you that right now. And you can put that [expletive] in there,” Lillard said. “If we come back and I don’t have an opportunity to make the playoffs, I will show up to work, I’ll be at practice and I’ll be with my team. I’m going to do all that [expletive] and then I’m going to be sitting right on that bench during the games.”
