During last night’s NBA Draft, a heated battle between Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard and Marvin Bagley provided some side entertainment.
While Portland Trail Blazers fans anxiously awaited the arrival of the newest addition to the roster via the 2019 NBA Draft, Damian Lillard found himself embroiled in battle of words with rookie Marvin Bagley online.
It’s safe to say that this was certainly an unexpected development, with Bagley being a newcomer to the hip hop game. Lillard has enjoyed a very successful career in the league to date while Bagley is still completely unproven. Perhaps Bagley believed taking a shot at the big fish in the NBA’s small niche of hip-hop personalities would help him elevate his profile.
Lillard is indisputably the champion of hip-hop in the NBA, having released two albums entitled Confirmed and The Letter O – the latter of which peaked at No. 7 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts. Lillard has also collaborated with one the most decorated hip-hop artists of all-time in Lil Wayne, on the song “Run It Up”.
Here’s the initial diss track released by Bagley that drew Lillard’s ire.
Warning: The following songs are NSFW
Within three short hours, Lillard saw the diss track, threw together his own, slapped a beat on it and released it to the public. Not only was the quickness of Lillard’s retaliation surprising, so was the quality. While Bagley’s original track flew under the radar, Lillard’s exploded across the internet, with over 20 thousand retweets and 55 thousand likes on Twitter at the time this article was published.
Not only that, but Lillard doubled up on the punishment he was dolling out to Sacramento’s promising rookie by releasing a follow-up track before Bagley even had the opportunity to respond. The rapid speed Portland’s guard was tossing clever insults at Bagley was hard to keep up with.
Bagley would go on to attempt to rekindle the flames of this feud this morning with another diss track, but it was too late. The internet had already decided. Bagley’s burial was staged over night, before he even knew about it. Lillard’s follow up song was titled “Bye Bye” and featured the signature send-off hand wave for a reason; Dolla Dame slayed Bagley the same way he did the Oklahoma City Thunder.
After years of coming just short on the court, it’s relieving to know the Portland Trail Blazers are building around such a unique player and personality. Lillard will always get the last laugh.