Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard had the toughest playoff climb of his NBA career this season, going through the eye of the needle to clinch the last postseason berth in the Western Conference.

That would not have been the case if Lillard had simply followed the blueprint to success and joined a super team.

But if Lillard were to win an NBA title, he would rather do it with the Blazers, the team that believed in him since the day he stepped foot in the league.

“I have always been about the journey,” Lillard said in his Time 100 Talks amid the Blazers’ first round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, which is currently tied at 1-1.

“The time invested in growing and figuring it out, having hard experiences, I feel like you got to go through the ups and downs.”

“I do not just want to win it all. I want to win it all here.”

An NBA title seems far fetched for Lillard and the Blazers this season, especially since that means having to get past the Lakers, one of the favorites to capture the championship.

Being an underdog, though, is where Lillard thrives the most as he eyes to replicate what Dirk Nowitzki achieved when the Dallas Mavericks upset the star-studded Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals.

“When they won it, they were not expected to win it. They just won it. I’m sure that one ring of his made his career perfect,” Lillard said of Nowitzki, who played all his 21 seasons with the Mavericks.

“It may not go that way for me but that is what I want to see for myself.”

But Lillard clarified he is not against the concept of super teams.

In fact, Lillard said he is a big fan of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, who both linked up with other NBA stars and won multiple championships.

“That is just not my personal preference. I do not have an issue with other people deciding to do it,” Lillard said.

“[I’m about] embracing the journey and having it come back around, knowing you worked hard, you did stuff right, you took the good with the bad, and then you get the reward for all of that.” – Rappler.com