Blazers Players Share How They Handle the Holidays

Portland Trail Blazers players go great lengths to maneuver around their NBA lives and have some sort of normal holiday season. This includes days-in-advance planning and online shopping to provide for their friends and loved ones, they told Blazers reporter Casey Holdahl:

“I think you’ve really got to start early.” said Trail Blazers guard/forward Evan Turner. “When it comes to the tree, we plan that four or five days in advance. So the playlist, the cookies, hot chocolate and stuff and then we come back to town I’ll have people over and we’ll have a Christmas movie night or something like that. Henny and hot chocolate, some cupcakes, something along those lines.”

Maurice Harkless highlights Amazon’s role in his shopping:

“Amazon!” exclaimed Moe Harkless when asked how he gets his shopping done despite spending a significant amount of time away from home. “I communicate with my family, they help me out because I have a bunch of kids in my family. My mom, my grandma help me out as far as what they’re into, what should I get. A lot of Amazon, honestly.”

Damian Lillard stresses finding a balance between his work and holiday season:

“First things first: I’m going to always consider my family or my loved ones before everything else,” said Damian Lillard. “Obviously I’m going to do what I’ve got to do for work but I’m not going to let that get in the way of my mom or my son or my girlfriend or my sister. It’s pretty simple: you’ve just got to find that time and that balance of how can I take care of one thing and still be able to get the other thing.”

You can read more from Holdahl’s story here.