Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard took to Draymond Green’s new show, Chips, to discuss the high school coach that laughed at his NBA dreams, and how that fueled his pursuit to NBA stardom.
When one reminisces on the career of Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard someday, perhaps the defining thought will come in how he overcame slight after slight, and taking a road less traveled. He’s the only player in Weber State history to average double-digit points in the Association. He’s in rare, if not exclusive company, transforming from two-star collegiate recruit to five-time NBA All-Star.
In an Bleacher Report interview with fellow unheralded but soon-to-be-star Draymond Green earlier today, Lillard discussed one of the moments that added some additional wood to that fire. He detailed an exchange that went as follows:
"“Coach was like, ‘man, you think you’re going to make it to the NBA?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he chuckled and laughed in my face, bro. He literally like smiled at me in my face and I was just like, I’ll never forget when he said that, and it was that summer when we played AAU. We played against the T-Mac (Tracy McGrady) All-Stars, and I was just killing.I remember seeing Lorenzo Romar (the Washington Huskies head coach from 2002 – 2017), Roy Williams (the North Carolina Tar Heels coach), and I’m leaving the court like, ‘I’m good. I’m (gonna) get a call. We get to the hotel, bro … nothing. Like nothing. I ain’t get nothing from that? I think from that moment, it was like, I felt slighted.”"
That moment proved to be more wood on the fire for Damian Lillard to showcase his ability. As we know, it would become just a pattern of things to come. Lillard remained a relative unknown to commodity over a two-month span before joining the Portland Trail Blazers, something we cover in-depth here.
It almost makes one wonder how many more slights we don’t already know of. Something tells me the Hall of Fame speech will be Jordan-esque — enough stories of being overlooked to make a documentary. In the meantime, it remains one more anecdote of Lillard’s remarkable story.