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The Story Of Damian Lillard
(Part 1)
(Part 1)
Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr was born on July 15th, 1990 in East Oakland. Damian Lillard grew up loving basketball and played the point guard position. His favourite team growing was the Warriors
Damian Lillard went to 3 high schools growing up. Those 3 high schools were the Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo, California. He also went to St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California and he went to Oakland High School.
In the Oakland High School, Dame made First Team All-League for his junior and senior years. He averaged 19.4 PPG as a junior and averaged 22.4 PPG as a senior and led the Oakland Wildcats to a record of 23-9.
Damian Lillard lived in Oakland where there was a lot of crime and gang violence. Lillard almost got shot in the head and almost lost his life in 2008 during a robbery by 3 men as he was waiting for the bus after practice
Despite his great years in high school, he was regarded as 2 star prospect and wasn’t heavily recruited however he did accept an offer to play for Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
As a freshman at Weber State, he averaged 11.5 PPG and was named freshman of the year and first team All-Big Sky. In his sophomore year, he averaged 19.9 PPG and led the team to the conference championship.
At the end of the year, he was awarded with player of the year and was an All American honourable mention. In 2010-11, Lillard led the team in scoring with 19.7 PPG but he suffered a foot injury which sidelined him for the rest of the year.
The next year, when he came back from injury, he averaged 24.5 PPG and came 2nd in scoring. He ended up getting a first team all conference selection and won his second player of the year award. Lillard was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award.
After this amazing year, he was regarded as a top point guard prospect in the nation and skipped his senior year to enter into the 2012 NBA draft. He finished with the 2nd most points in Weber State history.
In the NBA draft, Damian Lillard was selected as the 6th pick by the Portland Trail Blazers. He was selected behind guys like Anthony Davis and Bradley Beal. He was selected ahead of guys like Andre Drummond, Evan Fournier, Draymond Green and Khris Middleton.
In Damian Lillard’s first official game as a Blazer, he racked up 23 PTS and 11 AST and joined a selective category of players to have 20+ PTS and 10+ AST in their NBA debut. Lillard participated in the NBA skills challenge and became the first Blazer to win an all star event.
He also participated in the rising stars challenge and recorded 18 PTS. Lillard won western conference rookie of the month every single month and became just 1 of 8 players to sweep the award. He led rookies in scoring with 19.0 PPG and in assists with 6.5 APG.
He ended up averaging 19.0 PPG, 6.5 APG, 3.1 RPG on 43/37/84 splits and won Rookie Of The Year unanimously joining only a small club of players who were able to do that. He also joined AI and Oscar Robertson as the only rookies to record 1500+ PTS and 500+ AST for a season.
Despite all these great records, the Blazers ended up as the 11th seed and a record of 33-49. Even though the Blazers missed the playoffs, there was a bright future because the Blazers possibly found their new star duo of Lillard and LeMarcus Aldridge.
Coming into the 2013-14 season, there were not many high expectations for the Blazers. Even though they possibly found their new duo, people thought it wasn’t enough to make a run in the west.
However the Blazers completed shattered the expectations as they ended up with the 5th seed and a record of 54-28. Damian Lillard averaged 20.7 PPG and 5.6 APG on 42/39/87 splits, he also made his first all star team and participated in all the all star weekend events.
Dame also made All NBA 3rd team this year.
The Blazers were going to face the 54-28 Rockets in the playoffs who had a star duo themselves in James Harden and Dwight Howard. There was immense pressure on the Blazers to win this series considering they hadn’t gotten past the first round in 14 years.
The Blazers took the first 2 games of the series in which Dame had 31 PTS and 18 PTS. The Rockets managed to take game 3 at home despite Lillard’s 30 PTS. The Blazers took game 4 in Houston and were now up 3-1.
With all the momentum against them, the Rockets, somehow took game 5. Game 6 at home was a must win for the Blazers because if they lost then they would’ve went to a game 7 in Houston with all the momentum against them.
In game 6, Dame made his mark in the NBA and had 25 PTS along with 6 REB on 57/60/100 splits. He also hit the game winner to book Portland’s spot into the 2nd round and break that 14 year streak.
Dame averaged 25.5 PPG along with 6.7 APG on 47/49/88 splits in the series vs the Rockets.
The Blazers now had an almost impossible task ahead of them in the 2nd round. They had to play the dynasty Spurs in the 2nd round. This task did prove to be impossible as the Blazers got gentlemen swept by the Spurs. Dame only averaged 19.8 PPG on poor 41/17/94 splits.
Part 2 coming. Please retweet and like!!
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@YRN_DDollaaa @Lillard0szn @KindredSwerv @Dameszn0 @Parker90588342 @DamesGoat @Dame_Wrld @DameWrlds @striderrrr12 @FanaticsBlazer @McCoy03_ @Logo_Lillard_ @LogoLillard @LillardEra @DamianLillGoat @smoothieuzi
