'Fruitvale Station' Hits Home For Dame

[ABM]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba---...e-for-blazers--damian-lillard--225058284.html

The Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard and a cousin saw the biopic "Fruitvale Station" in an otherwise empty theater in Portland on Wednesday night. Considering that the NBA Rookie of the Year personally knew the man portrayed in the film, it probably was easier to watch it in the Pacific Northwest without many people around rather than in his hometown of Oakland, Calif.

"If I would have watched it at home I'm sure there would have been a lot of people out there crying," Lillard told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday in a phone interview.

"Fruitvale Station" is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a young African-American who, while handcuffed with his face to the ground, was shot in the back and killed by a transit police officer in the early morning of New Year's Day 2009. Grant's death sparked mass protests in Oakland.

Lillard says he became familiar with Grant through his older brother, Houston, who knew Grant well. Lillard learned of Grant's death while attending Weber State University.

"He went to high school and played on the same football team as my brother," Lillard said. "I used to always be around my brother at the high school and crossed paths with [Grant]. We were on the bus at the same time. We were always in the same areas."

Lillard was initially nervous to see the movie, which won awards at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. The emotional ending hit him hard.

"You don't see a lot of movies that are actually based in Oakland and give a chance to see what people are going through there every day," Lillard said. "It was nerve-wracking to see in the movie how they had everything down pat and how they eventually went through the day in the life of a lot of people, a lot of young men in Oakland.

"At the end it was breathtaking how [Grant] kept saying after he was shot that he had a daughter, you see how friends were [helpless] and see how his family came together. This wasn't just a movie. This really happened. At that point, I kind of sat in my seat and was like, 'Wow.' "

Lillard tweeted his initial reaction to the movie and his connection to Grant and received a reply from LeBron James...............

 

[jlprk]

A movie about real black people in America, not black musicians or athletes. The Oregonian will demand a new Bible to stop this.

http://www.nba.com/blazers/fans/25_point_pledge.html

 

[TripTango]

A movie about real black people in America, not black musicians or athletes. The Oregonian will demand a new Bible to stop this.

http://www.nba.com/blazers/fans/25_point_pledge.html

What the hell are you talking about?

 

[SlyPokerDog]

What the hell are you talking about?

I'm not even sure if he knows. Just nod your head like you agree with him and move on.

 

[jlprk]

Bring back Bob!!

 

[HailBlazers]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba---...e-for-blazers--damian-lillard--225058284.html

"Right now it is out of control," Lillard said. "While I don't think [the problem] can be completely taken away – it's always going to be a problem – I do think it can be better. With being in the NBA, I have so much influence with a lot of the kids, I think I can at least start to change the culture."

Big ups for Dame being the change he wants to see in the World.

Saw Fruitvale Station a week ago and was pretty speechless. I get on Facebook the next day and my good friend living in Oakland had posted about hearing a dozen gunshots near Fruitvale the night before, right around the time I caught the flick. Pretty crazy.

 

[illmatic99]

Seems like a must watch for me. And wow! Never realized this was Wallace from The Wire!

 

[THE HCP]

Kids name is Michael Jordan right?


Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!

 

[illmatic99]

yup.

[video=youtube;sTsyFY9TESo]

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I guess that's the answer to "where the fuck is Wallace"...

[video=youtube;YrSy9r0-lMg]

(I've also seen him in Burn Notice. Bit of a come down. But they seem to go after Wire actors.)

 

[PapaG]

Without making this too much of a social issue, the number of youths killed in Fruitvale and similar neighborhoods in this country are a travesty, yet the only time these hell-holes get any media and political exposure is when it involves some sort of racial aspect.

If the politicians were sincere about helping out these troubled areas, it would be an everyday effort, and not just once a year in order to score political points based on color.

 

[PapaG]

The Wire was such a great show. Wallace living in the abandoned apartment with a bunch of grade-school kids and trying to 'parent' them was one of the most jarring moments of the entire series for me. Kids really do grow up that way in inner cities.

 

[crandc]

The thread is about Dame's response to the movie. Not someone else's comments on Oakland, someone who doesn't even live there.

 

[PapaG]

The thread is about Dame's response to the movie. Not someone else's comments on Oakland, someone who doesn't even live there.

The movie is about Oakland. I made a commentary about poor neighborhoods and the senseless deaths in them all over the country. I'm just happy you didn't turn this into another thread about homophobes ... yet.