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And that was it,” Lillard said of his actions after the game. (Chris Detrick | Tribune file photo) Weber State Wildcats guard Damian Lillard (1) runs around Utah Utes guard Anthony Odunsi (3) during a 2011 game. “We can go to lunch, hang out and just talk. That’s what Kyle Bullinger remembers most about those days. Steve Young: Shanahan doesn't trust Jimmy G, The insane way one Bay Area man 'climbed' Everest. “That’s correct,” Young said, “all the way 100 percent correct.”. Watkins wouldn't have predicted his pupil would be the Rookie of the Year back then - not even an NBA player - but he knew "that he'd make money playing basketball. He became the player, who in a 36-point performance at Saint Mary’s in the Bay Area in 2011, tugged on Randy Rahe’s shirt out of a timeout and said, “Coach, give me the [expletive] ball.”, “He grew into a man here,” said Rahe. Last summer was a low point. When his jersey was retired at Weber State in 2017, ensuring no other Wildcat would ever wear No. Damian Lillard wasn’t content with just the torches to represent his love for Oakland. "He did tell me once when he was a senior he thought Cal should have recruited him," Watkins said. The Quip Refillable Floss Pick is...actually kinda cool? “When he comes back here, it’s normal,” Duft said. While Oakland made him, it was Ogden that eventually transformed Lillard into the player who not only took the big shots, but so often sunk them. It’s not a big deal. A day prior to getting his first on-court action in more than four months in the Portland Trail Blazers’ first scrimmage game of the NBA restart in Orlando, Oakland’s Damian Lillard sat down with myself and editor Daniel J. Willis to talk about how he’s been moved to act following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. 0 in Portland. Weber State head coach Randy Rahe listens to to Damian Lillard during first-half action at BYU versus Weber State in 2011. Lillard has been on fire and now has his No. When he wasn’t changing his own fortunes on the court with his tantalizing style of play, he was hanging out with friends and teammates in the university village dorms mixing beats and rapping after long, grueling practices. He became a two-time Big Sky Conference MVP and was named an All-American his junior year. “He could be outta here in a hurry if things work out right.”. Arozarena, who was acquired by th, Many baseball fans got a chance to revel in the moment after the Houston Astros were eliminated from the MLB playoffs on Saturday with a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 7 of the ALCS at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. One of the peo, The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Houston Astros 4-2 in Game 7 of the ALCS on Saturday night at Petco Park in San Diego, Calif. to advance to the World Series for just the second time in their franchise’s history. Among the many elite Bay Area athletes he's covered as preps are Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Jahvid Best, D.J. Lillard has explained why he wears the No. The Trail Blazers won 118-115. The Portland Trail Blazers guard was the high scorer in his team’s 100-93 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. “He sees their grind, he sees how special people are and what they do for him and he doesn’t take that for granted,” said former Weber State teammate Scott Bamforth. “I think the greater the spotlight came on him,” said Bullinger, one of Lillard’s teammates at Weber State, “the more grounded he became, to a certain extent.”. To those who know Lillard best, they say he doesn’t forget who pushed him or made him feel like he could do it when so many others found it convenient to look the other way. How 'Emily in Paris' gets cast iron skillets wrong. 14 Cougars also have some mettle, Analysis: Here’s why the Utah Jazz giving more years to Mike Conley could make sense, Arozarena, Rays top Astros 4-2 in Game 7, reach World Series, Utah Royals lose 2-0 to OL Reign to wrap up a strange 2020 season, Hideout city council approves controversial annexation. With Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2000, headlines have surrounded the hometown kid facing off against his hometown team. And how even as his performances turned heads and caught the attention of NBA scouts nationwide, he remained the same Dame. ", Said Lillard: "Once I make a few, I can get going.". https://sports.yahoo.com/blazers-damian-lillard-wanted-name-174907121.html Did he ever. ", Let 'em know @Dame_Lillard pic.twitter.com/y3vBXbyyqi, — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 19, 2020, “They played the East Oakland anthem. The high school landscape is a minefield for rich, personal stories. It was before his sophomore year, though, that Weber State’s staff knew that eventually his evolution as a player would catapult him to new heights. (Steve Griffin | Tribune file photo) Weber State's Damian Lillard jumps into the arms of his teammates after leading the Wildcats to an 83-76 victory over Utah in 2009 at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. Early money at sportsbooks is going to Warriors, not... Has this Rams star always been right about Jimmy G? Which is now why he can make it look just so easy. “Never sugarcoated anything,” Young said. Once again, he proved himself to be the Steph Curry of this year’s season by pulling up from long range and making threes. With Portland down 117-105 with 1:12 left, Lillard made three three-pointers, a fastbreak layup and three free throws to cut the lead to 121-119 with 16.5 seconds to play. I think he feels free to be honest and open and it just feels natural.”. "They played an East Oakland anthem, it was only right I go dumb for a sec. Rahe remembers seeing that relentlessness on display during Lillard’s freshman year when he hit a game-tying 3 against Northern Colorado to get Weber into overtime. He set the bar awfully high with his 2012-13 Rookie of the Year season when he ranked first among first-year players in points (19.0 per game), assists (6.5) and minutes (38.6). Lillard was built to persevere and prove to himself and others that he could do it. Just getting the win was a huge victory for the Dodgers, but it als, Randy Arozarena wins ALCS MVP and is making postseason history, Ex-Yankees P throws shade at Astros after Game 7 loss, Video: Longtime Rays fan Dick Vitale reacts to Tampa Bay winning pennant, North Carolina chokes in loss to Florida State with three straight drops to end game, Nobody could understand why the Rays pulled Charlie Morton from Game 7. "I told him he wouldn't want to play for Ben Braun anyway, that he should go to a place where he felt wanted and could make him a better guard.". (Bill Kostroun | AP file photo) NBA Commissioner David Stern, left, poses with the No. Not just for high school kids, said Portland coach Terry Stotts. There's no sport Mitch doesn't relish covering and no profile he doesn't find interesting. “He was shooting from that distance long before people knew who he was.”, Of course. The song he was referring to was Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle.”. (Michael Albans | AP file photo) Weber State guard Damian Lillard (1) goes up under the basket in front of Montana guard Will Cherry (5) and forward Mike Weisner, center, during the first half of a 2012 NCAA college basketball game in Missoula, Mont. (Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune file photo) Weber State guard Damian Lillard, pictured here in 2011, was the state's best college basketball player at the time. Lillard received only mid-major college offers, which Watkins said rarely bothered Lillard. But what makes this former player different is his ability to spot a phony, Rahe explains. “Damian’s an old soul with old school values.”. He scored a career-high 41 points Tuesday in a 123-119 loss to Sacramento, which included a franchise-record 26 in the fourth quarter - and a remarkable 14 in less than a minute. The big win was rewarding, North Carolina choked in their 31-28 loss at Florida State on Saturday night to suffer their first defeat of the season. So many of them. sltrib.com © 1996-2020 The Salt Lake Tribune. He was built to want to be the best.". His first hoop was a plastic milk carton nailed to a telephone pole in East Oakland. ", More importantly, Watkins said, "He wanted to be an NBA player. He won back-to-back California Prep Sports Writers Association awards for feature writing. Can anything be done to slow him down? At the end of the season, Lillard was named the Big Sky Player of the Year and was an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press. He never forgets a good deed. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer), Gordon Monson: As Pac-12 Bad Boys, nobody laughs at Utah football, not anymore, BYU in review: Thrilling win over Houston showed the No. Every fall, the program tries to attend a Utah Jazz practice before the Wildcat season starts. https://sports.yahoo.com/damian-lillard-oakland-native-gets-233318498.html “That shot was a decade in the making,” said Gold, Weber State’s former director of basketball operations. The Wildcats later won. Young began coaching Lillard in middle school on the AAU circuit.

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