I rock with Joe for this “In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset. Lillard knew then he was unlikely to end up in Miami.” Big dick Joe. Also a bit disappointing this is how they’re going out and how clearly fractured the relationship ended.
likpoper
Cronin really did dame a bad one.. but he was doing right by the organization
SlamDunkleyKong
Seeing “Cronin said there was no coming back” really sucks. I don’t know if the rift could have been repaired though. I also don’t think it would’ve been good for Scoot to have the cloud over the season. Fuck man. Sucks.
Scalmaa
Two sides to every story, and this is one very biased one.
Btw it was Dame and his camp that decided to make it messy first, so too bad.
Zers503
Oof, damning read. I’ll take it with a grain of salt. I’m sure there is some truth to it but has biased. My thoughts; Jody and Cronin wanted to do a rebuild for a few years now but Dame was in the way of that. When he’s trade request happened it was easy for Joe to continue his rebuild and turn Dame into the scapegoat, Dame didn’t help his case in this.
In a few years it won’t matter. Dame is a legend in Portland, fans were hurt but I pass three murals everyday of day on Hawthorne going to work. His number will probably be in the rafters some day, deservingly so.
Kazekid
Obviously, there are two sides to every story. The “Only want to play for Miami” move to hurt our leverage must have really burned any bridges for a potential Dame return to the team.
dukkha_dukkha_goose
This is incredibly one sided.
If Haynes attempted to contact the Blazers for comment, he doesn’t even mention it.
It’s essentially a press release from Goodwin and Dame.
PDX4
Dame and his camp tried to push Joe and thus the Blazers, into a corner. He (wrongfully) assumed his loyalty would result in his ask being met. I don’t blame Joe one bit…yes it likely got ugly but oh well, his responsibility is to the organization. In hindsight, I am glad Dame asked for a trade, it’s what both sides objectively needed. We need to rebuild around a promising young core and Dame needs to be on an actual competitor
FakeFan07
I love dame, as a player, person, everything we’ve seen. He seems like a genuine human being. It sucks to see him say if he can’t go to Miami then he’d prefer to stay and Cronin say it’s not happening, but it’s understandable. I feel like going young and getting all these picks are preparation to sell the team, which hopefully happens soon. I hope Dame wins a ship with the bucks and is welcomed back at the end of his career under entire new management.
ajmcgill
> In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset. Lillard knew then he was unlikely to end up in Miami.
Lmao. I’m sorry I couldn’t help but laugh here. “If I’m forced in this I’m making it the best possible deal that’s acceptable”
Dame’s camp: “well, shit”
toadtruck
Blame your agent my man.
X_SkeletonCandy
I’m torn.
On one hand, Dame did everything in his power to tank his value and force his way to the Heat, which objectively would’ve screwed us over.
On the other, he realized it wasn’t gonna happen and was ready to come back and make it work. Cronin, according to this, decided that wasn’t going to happen.
Part of me fucking hates Cronin right now, but I can’t deny he got a solid return (So far), and he sent Dame to a place where he absolutely can win a ring.
Fuck you Cronin, but also thanks for the decent rebuild.
Handcuffed
I fucking love Dame. I hope he wins multiple championships in Milwaukee. I’m sympathetic to him feeling like he wasn’t properly supported (in terms of bold management moves and building a team) here in Portland; he wasn’t.
Breakups are messy. It was always going to be ugly but, with time, both parties will look back at some things this summer as a blip.
I’m grateful that Cronin is our GM. We needed to rebuild; once that door was cracked, we had to go through it no matter what. Burn the ships.
EvanTurningTheCorner
I’m sorry, this is meant to be a hit piece on Cronin, but Dame is the asshole here. Dude tried to force his way to a team that had no assets to offer, and then when he didn’t get his way he wanted to go back like nothing ever happened? Hell no.
iceblade123
Dame was loyal to Portland to the end.
He had a preferred destination and when that wasn’t on the table he was told he couldn’t return.
Dame really really really loved Portland.
cippy91
I just come out of this seeing both sides honestly. Dame wanted to win, Joe couldn’t possibly put a contender around him and undo the shit show Neil had us in for all those years. I am sure Joe felt a way about how his agent handled things. I mean the guy just got his job and it was made even harder by the Miami one destination thing. So yeah, there are feelings involved. On both sides. Shit runs deep. Both are hurt. One day this will all blow over I bet.
​
Funny thing is they made the trade so this wouldn’t be a distraction on media day and now with this piece coming four days before media day, that’s all joe will be asked about. I love dame and it fuckin sucks hes gone but I don’t know how you rescind a trade request three months after going hard about going to miami and wanting out. Damage was done. Can’t really repair it. Time will heal it though
​
Also, he asks to come back after free agency passed and everything got held out for him. So then what? you come back and scoot plays behind you? What happens next offseason? you try to ask out again because we were gonna suck regardless. I don’t get it
sard0nyx
Wow. Dame was willing to rescind his trade request and Cronin said no. That’s cold.
Forbidden_Donut503
Divorces hurt. All the good memories and friends made, all the hard times and triumphs and lows.
It’s a good thing I’m not GM. I probably would have taken him back. But Joe did what’s best for the franchise. And frankly I’m glad he did.
jboarei
This is one side, and you’ll get the other on Monday. Impossible to know who’s going to be telling 100 percent of the truth.
Carcrusher3
My main takeaway here is that Aaron Goodwin is the dumbest agent in the league. How are you so inept and emotional that you can’t hold conversations with the gm of your clients fucking team.
Guy is so sad he isn’t visiting the east coast beaches more often.
TubbzMcGee
Expecting Woj to publish a piece from the other side within the next week.
rock-or-something
This feels like one side of a messy story.
I don’t think cronin is a villain for not wanting dame to come back if Miami doesn’t happen.
Dame via Goodwin spent the whole summer putting Cronin in a corner to force a trade to Miami.
I think it’s too much of a distraction and circus bringing back a star who clearly wants out when you’re trying to move on and build around your new core.
It’s a fuck around and find out.
Cronin fucked around with the draft and found out dame wanted out, dame fucked around with his Miami demands and found out it would rub the FO the wrong way.
No bad guys, just an ugly split.
iguessineedanaltnow
Now Dame wants to try and control the narrative. The bridge has already been burned, dude. You threw gasoline on it and lit the match. Now you don’t get to throw a bucket of water on it to try and put it out.
peakchungus
Both sides seem to be at fault for this rift:
Dame absolutely shouldn’t have demanded *only* Miami. If he had provided a list of 5 or so teams off the bat, his request would have been perfectly reasonable.
Cronin also seems like an asshole: yeah he got a good return for Dame, but he went out of his way to burn bridges with the greatest player in franchise history along the way. There was no need to lie about the intentions of rebuilding. There was no need to destroy any chance of a end of career reunion with the ‘there is no coming back’. Cronin should have communicated privately with Dame and his agent over a year ago about the intentions to rebuild and if Dame wanted a trade to come up with a list of teams and he would try to honor it.
peakchungus
> Miami **believes** it could have included a third team and netted the Trail Blazers up to three first-round picks with the inclusion of Tyler Herro.
🤡 so there was no deal actually on the table, got it. It was Miami’s bEliEf that a deal would magically materialize after nearly 3 months of trying…
terrordactylz
In summary, Dame should fire his agent
BlazerWookiee
“Haynes,” lol…
throwaway986x
Is Chris Haynes interested in being a reporter or just a mouth piece for Dame?
acoker78
Gah I wish I didn’t know this stuff. This whole time I felt like I wished he stayed but understood he wanted out. And to know he accepted it and just wished to stay since it wasn’t working out how he’d hoped. And I’m sure he realized they he played this all wrong. I don’t think he ever really wanted to leave. Reading this makes me wish even more good things for him this year. I know this article was from the view of a friend of his who is going to paint him in the best light but there’s definitely some things Cronin did wrong. I hope it all works out for everyone involved after this whole mess.
OldGarlic05
Lots of Dame apologists in this thread lol
Gritty_gutty
It would have been insane to take Dame back after all this. He doesn’t fit the team at all. We’re a young rebuilding team with too many guards. Our budding superstar is a point guard who needs reps. Outside of sentimentality, keeping Lillard makes zero sense at all. It would bog down the entire rebuild. Trading him was the objectively correct on court decision.
trala7
Sigh.
I think it’s for the best we rebuild but I hope to god that one day the relationship is mended between Dame and the organisation.
This is not how this partnership was supposed to end.
saw-sync
what part of “miami didn’t have the assets” seems to be the stumbling block for everyone? we know they’re not giving jimmy or bam, and literally everyone else on the roster wasn’t interesting for a rebuild or the picks were always going to be bad. if i really want a toyota i’m not going to the jeep dealership
Gritty_gutty
Dame literally tried to do the George Constanza where he quits in a huff then when he can’t get the job he wants comes back and says “what you thought that was serious?!”
Like sorry dude but your timeline doesn’t fit on the team anymore. If he had been all in on helping the rebuild (which would be weird) then kicking him to the curb would be unfair. But after he asked out and burned a ton of bridges?! Nah man eff that.
honestqbe
Great article. Very interesting read. How to say Joe Cronin is a cold ass motherfucker to tell Dame there’s no coming back bro. That’s some fucking balls of steel right there.
ParticularHomework22
I have never been a fan of Chris Haynes. This article clearly paints Cronin as the bad guy, which is super unfair. This situation was handled so poorly by so many people, including Dame and his agent. Cronin was put in a terrible position by the previous regime, and then his superstar demands a trade while the team is forced into a rebuild because of poor decisions from before he was in charge. Then Dame and his team are pissed that they aren’t getting exactly what they want after he signed a mega extension? Lol. I love you Dame, but you and your team are so out of touch.
Luckily, I think everything was settled about as well as it could have.
forustree
This is a rushed article. Not too much here other than NBA legal counsel got involved to ensure both parties knew their contractual (league and players assoc.) obligations which basically meant Goodwin to stfu.
I still not okay with players demanding a trade to a specific team. It’s horseshit and makes the league look bush league.
Come what may and let karma bounces rule the day.
skrulewi
There’s blame to go around both sides, but blame isn’t really a good way to think about it IMO. Joe was slimier than he needed to be, but his mission was to tank and rebuild, because there was no pathway to a championship by the time he inherited the job. This ran counter to Dame’s passion for winning. Last year, we had his surgery to blame things on. This year, he had to get Dame to sit by promising him to trade the pick they’d get. Obviously this was a lie; maybe he would have traded the pick if they’d get a superstar in return but Joe must have known that if Scoot fell to them, he’d take him. Because it’d be malpractice not to.
Eventually Joe pushing to rebuild ran headfirst into Dame wanting to win, and if one side wasn’t as honest as the other about it, it was Joe.
Dame sharing publicly (Through his agent) that he’d only play for Miami absolutely crushed Joe into a corner. He needed to be tough in order to get value for Dame in the face of Dame tanking his own trade value.
And then there’s Dame asking Joe to sign Jerami Grant if they want to compete and then asking for a trade the NEXT DAY. There must have been something happening behind the scenes there, but shit.
I’m cool with people calling Joe a snake but at the end of the day it is literally his job to be two-faced and to eat shit on behalf of the blazers.
And I’m a blazers fan.
Let’s see what he gets for Jrue.
holyhackzak
Should change his rap name to Dame Drama at this point
Ghost-
This and Dame’s farewell letter droppin at the same time 😹 hilarious dichotomy of PR
redditguy625
Feels a bit like a hit piece on Cronin to take blame off of Dame as he leaves. I’m not necessarily calling Dame/Chris liars but I would be fascinated to hear Cronin’s side of the story on the part about Dame trying to return to the team.
ponder_grace
I’m suddenly a Cronin fan. I wasn’t when this started. But when dame decided to hold the team hostage, Cronin was right to tell him to eat shit and not let him come bring his toxic ass back into the locker room trying to stunt the growth of Portlands assets.
HorrorIndependent895
This is a great read, I hope people can take the tone with a grain of salt because it’s one side of the story. But it’s obviously Dame’s side of what went down, which is super interesting.
tacoforce5000
It sucks it had to get messy but my takeaway is that Cronin is a master negotiator. Not talking to Miami sounds weird at first but if he’d even talked to them at all it would have been a tell that we were trying to appease dame which kills our negotiating power. Goodwin caved and got dame to give other options, at which point those options get bid each other up. Not letting Goodwin sabotage trades was brilliant too
jhdjohnnyd
Joe Cronin need to be Fired !
TZY247
Can anyone say if that part about having Dame fake a calf injury could get blazers investigated? The league fined the Mavs because they were open about tanking. It’d be super shitty and maybe petty if dame got blazers in trouble on his way out the door
ShaeButterBlazer
In the long run, Goodwin fucked his client. It is possible to flex too hard.
48 Comments
Dame wanted to come back and Cronin said no
I rock with Joe for this “In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset. Lillard knew then he was unlikely to end up in Miami.” Big dick Joe. Also a bit disappointing this is how they’re going out and how clearly fractured the relationship ended.
Cronin really did dame a bad one.. but he was doing right by the organization
Seeing “Cronin said there was no coming back” really sucks. I don’t know if the rift could have been repaired though. I also don’t think it would’ve been good for Scoot to have the cloud over the season. Fuck man. Sucks.
Two sides to every story, and this is one very biased one.
Btw it was Dame and his camp that decided to make it messy first, so too bad.
Oof, damning read. I’ll take it with a grain of salt. I’m sure there is some truth to it but has biased.
My thoughts; Jody and Cronin wanted to do a rebuild for a few years now but Dame was in the way of that. When he’s trade request happened it was easy for Joe to continue his rebuild and turn Dame into the scapegoat, Dame didn’t help his case in this.
In a few years it won’t matter. Dame is a legend in Portland, fans were hurt but I pass three murals everyday of day on Hawthorne going to work. His number will probably be in the rafters some day, deservingly so.
Obviously, there are two sides to every story. The “Only want to play for Miami” move to hurt our leverage must have really burned any bridges for a potential Dame return to the team.
This is incredibly one sided.
If Haynes attempted to contact the Blazers for comment, he doesn’t even mention it.
It’s essentially a press release from Goodwin and Dame.
Dame and his camp tried to push Joe and thus the Blazers, into a corner. He (wrongfully) assumed his loyalty would result in his ask being met. I don’t blame Joe one bit…yes it likely got ugly but oh well, his responsibility is to the organization. In hindsight, I am glad Dame asked for a trade, it’s what both sides objectively needed. We need to rebuild around a promising young core and Dame needs to be on an actual competitor
I love dame, as a player, person, everything we’ve seen. He seems like a genuine human being. It sucks to see him say if he can’t go to Miami then he’d prefer to stay and Cronin say it’s not happening, but it’s understandable. I feel like going young and getting all these picks are preparation to sell the team, which hopefully happens soon. I hope Dame wins a ship with the bucks and is welcomed back at the end of his career under entire new management.
> In the Sept. 5 meeting, Cronin conveyed that if he was forced to do a deal with Miami, he had every intention of going after every attractable asset. Lillard knew then he was unlikely to end up in Miami.
Lmao. I’m sorry I couldn’t help but laugh here. “If I’m forced in this I’m making it the best possible deal that’s acceptable”
Dame’s camp: “well, shit”
Blame your agent my man.
I’m torn.
On one hand, Dame did everything in his power to tank his value and force his way to the Heat, which objectively would’ve screwed us over.
On the other, he realized it wasn’t gonna happen and was ready to come back and make it work. Cronin, according to this, decided that wasn’t going to happen.
Part of me fucking hates Cronin right now, but I can’t deny he got a solid return (So far), and he sent Dame to a place where he absolutely can win a ring.
Fuck you Cronin, but also thanks for the decent rebuild.
I fucking love Dame. I hope he wins multiple championships in Milwaukee. I’m sympathetic to him feeling like he wasn’t properly supported (in terms of bold management moves and building a team) here in Portland; he wasn’t.
Breakups are messy. It was always going to be ugly but, with time, both parties will look back at some things this summer as a blip.
I’m grateful that Cronin is our GM. We needed to rebuild; once that door was cracked, we had to go through it no matter what. Burn the ships.
I’m sorry, this is meant to be a hit piece on Cronin, but Dame is the asshole here. Dude tried to force his way to a team that had no assets to offer, and then when he didn’t get his way he wanted to go back like nothing ever happened? Hell no.
Dame was loyal to Portland to the end.
He had a preferred destination and when that wasn’t on the table he was told he couldn’t return.
Dame really really really loved Portland.
I just come out of this seeing both sides honestly. Dame wanted to win, Joe couldn’t possibly put a contender around him and undo the shit show Neil had us in for all those years. I am sure Joe felt a way about how his agent handled things. I mean the guy just got his job and it was made even harder by the Miami one destination thing. So yeah, there are feelings involved. On both sides. Shit runs deep. Both are hurt. One day this will all blow over I bet.
​
Funny thing is they made the trade so this wouldn’t be a distraction on media day and now with this piece coming four days before media day, that’s all joe will be asked about. I love dame and it fuckin sucks hes gone but I don’t know how you rescind a trade request three months after going hard about going to miami and wanting out. Damage was done. Can’t really repair it. Time will heal it though
​
Also, he asks to come back after free agency passed and everything got held out for him. So then what? you come back and scoot plays behind you? What happens next offseason? you try to ask out again because we were gonna suck regardless. I don’t get it
Wow. Dame was willing to rescind his trade request and Cronin said no. That’s cold.
Divorces hurt. All the good memories and friends made, all the hard times and triumphs and lows.
It’s a good thing I’m not GM. I probably would have taken him back. But Joe did what’s best for the franchise. And frankly I’m glad he did.
This is one side, and you’ll get the other on Monday.
Impossible to know who’s going to be telling 100 percent of the truth.
My main takeaway here is that Aaron Goodwin is the dumbest agent in the league. How are you so inept and emotional that you can’t hold conversations with the gm of your clients fucking team.
Guy is so sad he isn’t visiting the east coast beaches more often.
Expecting Woj to publish a piece from the other side within the next week.
This feels like one side of a messy story.
I don’t think cronin is a villain for not wanting dame to come back if Miami doesn’t happen.
Dame via Goodwin spent the whole summer putting Cronin in a corner to force a trade to Miami.
I think it’s too much of a distraction and circus bringing back a star who clearly wants out when you’re trying to move on and build around your new core.
It’s a fuck around and find out.
Cronin fucked around with the draft and found out dame wanted out, dame fucked around with his Miami demands and found out it would rub the FO the wrong way.
No bad guys, just an ugly split.
Now Dame wants to try and control the narrative. The bridge has already been burned, dude. You threw gasoline on it and lit the match. Now you don’t get to throw a bucket of water on it to try and put it out.
Both sides seem to be at fault for this rift:
Dame absolutely shouldn’t have demanded *only* Miami. If he had provided a list of 5 or so teams off the bat, his request would have been perfectly reasonable.
Cronin also seems like an asshole: yeah he got a good return for Dame, but he went out of his way to burn bridges with the greatest player in franchise history along the way. There was no need to lie about the intentions of rebuilding. There was no need to destroy any chance of a end of career reunion with the ‘there is no coming back’. Cronin should have communicated privately with Dame and his agent over a year ago about the intentions to rebuild and if Dame wanted a trade to come up with a list of teams and he would try to honor it.
> Miami **believes** it could have included a third team and netted the Trail Blazers up to three first-round picks with the inclusion of Tyler Herro.
🤡 so there was no deal actually on the table, got it. It was Miami’s bEliEf that a deal would magically materialize after nearly 3 months of trying…
In summary, Dame should fire his agent
“Haynes,” lol…
Is Chris Haynes interested in being a reporter or just a mouth piece for Dame?
Gah I wish I didn’t know this stuff. This whole time I felt like I wished he stayed but understood he wanted out. And to know he accepted it and just wished to stay since it wasn’t working out how he’d hoped. And I’m sure he realized they he played this all wrong. I don’t think he ever really wanted to leave. Reading this makes me wish even more good things for him this year. I know this article was from the view of a friend of his who is going to paint him in the best light but there’s definitely some things Cronin did wrong. I hope it all works out for everyone involved after this whole mess.
Lots of Dame apologists in this thread lol
It would have been insane to take Dame back after all this. He doesn’t fit the team at all. We’re a young rebuilding team with too many guards. Our budding superstar is a point guard who needs reps. Outside of sentimentality, keeping Lillard makes zero sense at all. It would bog down the entire rebuild. Trading him was the objectively correct on court decision.
Sigh.
I think it’s for the best we rebuild but I hope to god that one day the relationship is mended between Dame and the organisation.
This is not how this partnership was supposed to end.
what part of “miami didn’t have the assets” seems to be the stumbling block for everyone? we know they’re not giving jimmy or bam, and literally everyone else on the roster wasn’t interesting for a rebuild or the picks were always going to be bad. if i really want a toyota i’m not going to the jeep dealership
Dame literally tried to do the George Constanza where he quits in a huff then when he can’t get the job he wants comes back and says “what you thought that was serious?!”
Like sorry dude but your timeline doesn’t fit on the team anymore. If he had been all in on helping the rebuild (which would be weird) then kicking him to the curb would be unfair. But after he asked out and burned a ton of bridges?! Nah man eff that.
Great article. Very interesting read. How to say Joe Cronin is a cold ass motherfucker to tell Dame there’s no coming back bro. That’s some fucking balls of steel right there.
I have never been a fan of Chris Haynes. This article clearly paints Cronin as the bad guy, which is super unfair. This situation was handled so poorly by so many people, including Dame and his agent. Cronin was put in a terrible position by the previous regime, and then his superstar demands a trade while the team is forced into a rebuild because of poor decisions from before he was in charge. Then Dame and his team are pissed that they aren’t getting exactly what they want after he signed a mega extension? Lol. I love you Dame, but you and your team are so out of touch.
Luckily, I think everything was settled about as well as it could have.
This is a rushed article.
Not too much here other than NBA legal counsel got involved to ensure both parties knew their contractual (league and players assoc.) obligations which basically meant Goodwin to stfu.
I still not okay with players demanding a trade to a specific team. It’s horseshit and makes the league look bush league.
Come what may and let karma bounces rule the day.
There’s blame to go around both sides, but blame isn’t really a good way to think about it IMO. Joe was slimier than he needed to be, but his mission was to tank and rebuild, because there was no pathway to a championship by the time he inherited the job. This ran counter to Dame’s passion for winning. Last year, we had his surgery to blame things on. This year, he had to get Dame to sit by promising him to trade the pick they’d get. Obviously this was a lie; maybe he would have traded the pick if they’d get a superstar in return but Joe must have known that if Scoot fell to them, he’d take him. Because it’d be malpractice not to.
Eventually Joe pushing to rebuild ran headfirst into Dame wanting to win, and if one side wasn’t as honest as the other about it, it was Joe.
Dame sharing publicly (Through his agent) that he’d only play for Miami absolutely crushed Joe into a corner. He needed to be tough in order to get value for Dame in the face of Dame tanking his own trade value.
And then there’s Dame asking Joe to sign Jerami Grant if they want to compete and then asking for a trade the NEXT DAY. There must have been something happening behind the scenes there, but shit.
I’m cool with people calling Joe a snake but at the end of the day it is literally his job to be two-faced and to eat shit on behalf of the blazers.
And I’m a blazers fan.
Let’s see what he gets for Jrue.
Should change his rap name to Dame Drama at this point
This and Dame’s farewell letter droppin at the same time 😹 hilarious dichotomy of PR
Feels a bit like a hit piece on Cronin to take blame off of Dame as he leaves. I’m not necessarily calling Dame/Chris liars but I would be fascinated to hear Cronin’s side of the story on the part about Dame trying to return to the team.
I’m suddenly a Cronin fan. I wasn’t when this started. But when dame decided to hold the team hostage, Cronin was right to tell him to eat shit and not let him come bring his toxic ass back into the locker room trying to stunt the growth of Portlands assets.
This is a great read, I hope people can take the tone with a grain of salt because it’s one side of the story. But it’s obviously Dame’s side of what went down, which is super interesting.
It sucks it had to get messy but my takeaway is that Cronin is a master negotiator. Not talking to Miami sounds weird at first but if he’d even talked to them at all it would have been a tell that we were trying to appease dame which kills our negotiating power. Goodwin caved and got dame to give other options, at which point those options get bid each other up. Not letting Goodwin sabotage trades was brilliant too
Joe Cronin need to be Fired !
Can anyone say if that part about having Dame fake a calf injury could get blazers investigated? The league fined the Mavs because they were open about tanking. It’d be super shitty and maybe petty if dame got blazers in trouble on his way out the door
In the long run, Goodwin fucked his client.
It is possible to flex too hard.