blazesketball

When I first saw Damian Lillard’s name linked to Portland in a mock draft in 2012—to be perfectly honest—I had not only never heard of him, but I had never even heard of his school, Weber State. I remember scoffing at this proposed selection, and literally saying out loud, “but what about Austin Rivers?”

It’s kind of hard to believe that this happened just a little bit over four years ago. A lot has changed in that time for Portland, for Dame, and well, for Austin Rivers too now that you mention it. I still don’t know particularly much about Weber State, but what I do know, undoubtedly, is that it delivered unto us Damian Lillard—franchise savior, point god, America’s sixth richest rapper, etc.—as a player who was remarkably primed for day-one NBA stardom.

In the four years since Lillard declared for the draft, he’s somehow already accomplished the following:

• Rookie of the Year winner (fourth-ever player to do so unanimously)
• 2x All-NBA (1x third team, 1x second team)
• 2x All-Star (in addition to being one of the biggest ASG snubs ever in 2015/2016)
• Set an NBA record for the most made three pointers in a player’s first three seasons
• Set both the career and single season franchise records for three pointers made
• Went to the playoffs three times and won two series
• Hit the biggest shot in the history of the franchise
• Released an album
• Signed a $139 million contract extension (on top of the $13.8 million that he earned on his rookie deal)
• Signed a $100 million endorsement contract with Adidas
• Cemented his place as a top-ten player in the history of the franchise

Prior to the arrival of Lillard, Portland had been stuck in a decade-long point guard limbo. When the Jail Blazers were dismantled and Damon Stoudamire left for Memphis, things in the competent-point-guard-play department went south quickly, and for a really long time. Sebastian Telfair inherited the job—and then everything that happened with Sebastian Telfair happened—and then the torch was passed to the following players: Dan Dickau, Taurean Green, Jarrett Jack, Jerryd Bayless, Sergio Rodriguez, Steve Blake like seven different times, a 34-year-old Andre Miller, Armon Johnson, Patty Mills, Raymond Felton, Jonny Flynn, and Nolan Smith. In the context of the golden age of NBA PGs, the Blazers were a ship without a captain; a plane without a pilot; a Sheed without a headband.

And then a funny thing happened, though it didn’t seem particularly funny at the time: the Blazers of the lockout-shortened 2011/2012 season imploded. Raymond Felton, Jamal Crawford and co. led a mutiny against Nate McMillan, who was fired and briefly replaced with Kaleb Canales. A fire sale of the roster ensued, and the boy Chad Buchanan was somehow able to get a top-three protected first rounder from the at-the-time New Jersey Nets in exchange for Gerald Wallace—whose career was about to fall off a cliff due to playing eleven professional seasons of a style of basketball which had earned him the moniker “Crash.”

The Blazers, despite their wild tailspin, managed to finish with only the eleventh worst record in the league in 2012. The Nets, however, finished with the sixth worst record, and thus lost their pick. The Blazers hired Neil Olshey, Olshey selected Lillard with the sixth overall pick, and the rest is history.

Because it’s nearly the eve of the season, here’s a list of the Top 10 moments from said history. You can probably guess what’s number one.

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10. The Kobe duel

The super-team-that-wasn’t—the Dwight/Nash/Pau/Kobe Lakers—were trying to salvage their season and sneak into the playoffs, while the Blazers were essentially just playing for pride. Lillard went off for 38 and 9, but Kobe dropped 47—still a Rose Garden / Moda Center record for an opponent. Two days later, Kobe would tear his Achilles against the Warriors in Los Angeles—and depending on your opinion of Kobe Day—would never play in another meaningful game.

Sasha Pavlovic was in this game, too.

9. Dunk on Gobert

Yikes.

8. 17 points in the final 3 minutes against OKC

Just Dame doing Dame shit.

7. First buzzer beater

First off, JJ Hickson had 24 and 16 in this game. Shoutout to JJ Hickson. I heard he signed in China the other day. Here’s hoping he reaches Marbury-esque levels of success.

That being said, this was a dope game, and it represents the first true instance of Lillard Time.

6. Competes in all five events at All Star Weekend

Prior to Lillard in 2014, nobody had ever competed in all five events at ASW, and I don’t really think anyone ever really considered that that was a thing that a person could do. Lillard only won the Skills Challenge, but he showed out relatively well in each, and began the process of significantly raising his national profile.

5. Game winner in Detroit 

It’s worth nothing that there were only like 14 people at this game. I imagine that the post-Chauncey Billups / pre- SVG era was a really lonely and isolating time to be a Pistons fan. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sadder announcer.

48 hours later, Dame would do this:

4. Game winner in Cleveland

“You’re watching a superstar being born right in front of our eyes.”

3. Rookie of the Year

On his way to earning ROTY over Anthony Davis, Dame put up 19/6/3 on 43%/37%/84% splits, started every game, and generally made people feel dumb for openly wondering pre-draft if he was going to be as good as Kendall Marshall.

2. Drops 51 on the Warriors

Five days after the All Star Game that he was told he wasn’t good enough to be a part of—despite averaging 24/7/4 and lifting his team from their dire preseason projections toward the playoffs—the man had simply had enough.

He not only set a career high of 51, but went 9/12 from three and had 7 assists and 6 steals. It’s hard to play a better game than that.

 1. The Shot 

A still-underrated aspect of this sequence was when he grabbed the mic and yelled “RIP CITAYYYYY”. For like half a second I honestly thought he was about to start spitting bars. Shit was bonkers.