Damian Lillard is one of the best NBA players in the world right now, but he wasn’t always supposed to have made it this far. Lillard was playing for an under-recruited college in Weber State. However, his play was transcendent at the college level and the Portland Trailblazers took a chance on him by drafting him with their first-round pick in 2012.
Lillard revealed to Andscape how being drafted by the Blazers allowed him to help his mother quit her job, as he had finally made it to the NBA and was bound to become a millionaire.
“I just felt like, ‘I’m about to change my family’s life, my mom’s.’ First thing I did, all right, I’m a millionaire now so I went to my mom’s job and was like, ‘Quit.’ I literally went and helped her pack up her desk, everything. ‘They ain’t been doing you right. They’ve been on your ass about every little thing. We ain’t coming back.’ So that was kind of just my initial thought.”
“I ain’t going to lie. That was one of the best feelings I’ve had. I started telling her going into my last year of college [at mid-major Weber State University] that I was going to get drafted. We would talk on the phone at least every other day. And she’d be telling me how she had been feeling sick. They were on her about her production. They were basically threatening to fire her. She was stressed out and struggling at work with her health. And I was just constantly telling her things like, ‘The [Boston] Celtics were at practice today. The [Utah] Jazz was at practice today.’ I was just trying to pick up her spirits. We were just connected like that. She would tell me about her issues.
She was living in an apartment in San Leandro at the time with my sister. I was just trying to lift her up with my success. ‘I’m entering the draft this year when the school year is over.’ So, just knowing everything that I knew for that whole school year, when I finally got drafted and everything was pretty much set, I came home, and we literally went to her job in San Ramon. We walked in and everybody was aware that I just got drafted. So, they were like, ‘Oh, Gina, your son …’ Blah, blah. I was like, ‘We quit! We quit!’” (h.t Andscape)
Damian Lillard’s Loyalty To Portland
One of the reasons that Lillard has stayed loyal to the Trailblazers even when he could have left for a contender is because they were the team that gave Lillard the opportunity to take care of his family as an NBA player. If the Blazers didn’t take a chance on Lillard, he never would have been in a position to take care of his family in the way he was able to after being drafted.
Over the years, Portland has paid Lillard whatever max they can give him. This means the point guard may have one of the biggest contracts in NBA history by the time he retires. His loyalty to the team has led to financial success that the NBA salary cap doesn’t allow through various free agent decisions.
Lillard is set to make over $500 million in NBA contracts in his career, an incredible feat for an undersized guard coming out of a college like Weber State.
