VIDEO: Damian Lillard Opens Up About All-Star Snub
In case you haven’t heard, Damian Lillard has not been selected to the 2015 NBA All-Star Game. He was there last year, but won’t be participating
in the festivities in New York City in a few weeks.
For more context, here’s what Lillard told The Oregonian newspaper:
“I’m definitely going to take it personal,” he said.
“I just felt disrespected,” he added. “Because I play the game the right way, I play unselfishly, I play for my team to win games and I produce at a high level. I think what I bring to the game as a person, my makeup mentally, how I am toward my teammates, how I am toward the media, how I am toward fans; I think what an All-Star represents in this league, and what you would want people to look at as an All-Star, I think I make up all those things.
“For me to be having the type of season that I’m having, which is better than anyone that I’ve had before, and my team to be third in the Western Conference, I just see it as disrespect. I’m not one of those guys that’s going to say, ‘Oh, I should be in over this guy or that guy.’ I’m not a hater. I’ve got respect for each guy that made the roster. And I think they deserve to (make the team). But at the same time, I feel really disrespected, and that’s just honestly how I feel.”
He also took to social media saying, among other things, “I just want to thank the coaches who feel I wasn’t good enough, the fans that didn’t think I was good enough, and [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver also for not thinking I was good enough. This isn’t unfamiliar territory for me, it’s actually what my life has been inspired by.”
Lillard and his Trail Blazers will face the league’s hottest team in the Atlanta Hawks tonight. The Hawks have three players that will play in the All-Star game, including point guard Jeff Teague, who might just be the first recipient of Lillard’s newly inspired incentive to rampage on his opponents for the rest of the season.
