Damian Lillard is giving rookie Michael Porter Jr. a quick lesson in what NOT to say to the media ... calling out the Nuggets baller for "selfish" comments he said after Wednesday's loss to the Clippers.
MPJ was an open book to reporters after Denver's 96-85 loss to LA ... questioning coach Mike Malone's game plan and suggesting he should get the ball more in order to win.
"I just think to beat that team, we've gotta get more players involved," MPJ said ... essentially saying he wanted the rock in his hands more often.
When asked if it were his place -- as a rookie -- to speak up to the coaching staff, 22-year-old Porter doubled down.
"If Imma be out there on the court playing a lot of minutes, I think I should voice that."
Enter Lillard -- who got wind of MPJ's comments and immediately let his feelings known by tweeting out, "Smdh ..."
Several Twitter users clapped back at Dame, saying Porter's comments weren't wrong, it just wasn't the right time to air out his feelings.
"Yes he is wrong," Lillard responded. "If you know you know and ima leave it at that" ... adding, "clearly y’all mfs think on a selfish level to think this is coo ."
Lillard explains his problem with the comments ... saying, "If I want to win ima have this conversation with my coaches and teammates and express that."
"This is their second time being down 3-1 so if [Nikola Jokic] and [Jamal] Murray didn’t carry them here we wouldn’t be having this convo."
Others cited Kobe Bryant's "Mamba Mentality" when defending MPJ's comments ... but Dame says this is NOTHING like that.
"The disrespect smh."
Unclear if MPJ will address Dame's comments ... but the dude's got bigger problems right now -- the Nuggets are one loss from being eliminated from the playoffs, so maybe he'll focus on that for now.