Must read article!

SlyPokerDog · Jan 15, 2014

Lillard just tweeted the link to this article. Really good!

Enjoy!

(You have to watch a video before you can read the article.)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20140115/damian-lillard-oakland-point-guards/

maxiep · Jan 15, 2014

Great article. Loved the inclusion of LC.

Wizard Mentor · Jan 15, 2014

He's something to Cheer for alright:

[video=youtube;45DUBoyZhNk]

BlazerBeav · Jan 15, 2014

If only Damian had ended up in Corvallis like Lester and Gary. I guess we did have a first round pick in Cunningham at PG, but wouldn't have hurt to have them both.

BlayZa · Jan 15, 2014

fuckin sweet article and a great video too. how can you not like this guy? so proud to have him as a Blazer!

dviss1 · Jan 15, 2014

I love this...

When the Blazers trail deep in the fourth quarter and Lillard's expression turns to a snarl, forward Dorell Wright often asks, "You good, man?" Lillard fixes him with a hard stare. "No, I ain't good," he replies. "This stops here."

Shooter · Jan 16, 2014

Kidd, Payton pass the torch to Lillard

Lots of good stuff here.

In 1990, the year Payton was drafted No. 2 by the Seattle SuperSonics and Kidd led St. Joseph to the state championship, Damian Lillard was born into the cradle of the crossover. He learned to shoot on a milk crate attached to a telephone pole outside his grandmother's house. His AAU team practiced in an abandoned gym with wooden backboards. In middle school he played in a cafeteria where high-arching jumpers scraped the ceiling and a vending machine occupied one corner.

Lillard is the product of a different time -- more of a sniper than his predecessors, less of a stopper -- but the same hard-bitten place. "You learn the history, and you learn that Oakland carries weight," he says. "It means you don't get scared. You want to play one-on-one? We can do that. You want to fight after a game at the park with your cousins? I guess we can do that too."

When the Blazers trail deep in the fourth quarter and Lillard's expression turns to a snarl, forward Dorell Wright often asks, "You good, man?" Lillard fixes him with a hard stare. "No, I ain't good," he replies. "This stops here."

"I've been in the NBA 13 years, and this is the first place where I've never heard anybody complain about shots," says backup point guard Earl Watson. "Things are going on here that don't happen anywhere else things that are against the laws of sports."

Portland finished 11th in the conference last season and seemed to accomplish nothing of significance in the summer. But the Blazers are eye-to-eye with the Spurs and the Thunder atop the West. "This is not the normal way things go," says Bob Gross, a former Blazers forward who watched Portland's demolition of Charlotte from a suite at Moda Center. "But it wasn't how they went for us either."

In situations defined by the NBA as clutch-last five minutes, neither team ahead by more than five points -- Portland is an NBA-best +51.

http://bit.ly/1d5xV0s

Reep · Jan 16, 2014

Re: Kidd, Payton pass the torch to Lillard

Dude, you are slipping:

http://sportstwo.com/threads/254993-Must-read-article!

KeepOnRollin · Jan 16, 2014

Re: Kidd, Payton pass the torch to Lillard

Merge? http://sportstwo.com/threads/254993-Must-read-article!

Nevermind. Mods don't do it anyways.

maxiep · Jan 16, 2014

Re: Kidd, Payton pass the torch to Lillard

It's such a good article, it's worth posting twice. If you haven't read it, you should.

Dame seems so nice on the outside, but on the inside he clearly has a killer instinct. In other words, the outside is Ogden and Oregon; the inside is 100% Oakland.

Natebishop3 · Jan 16, 2014