Portland rising star will make history in New Orleans as the NBA’s all-rounder.
He has already shown himself to be one of the best point-guards in the NBA, and has shown himself to be one of the best all-round players
Now Portland Trailblazers star Damian Lillard has a chance ti prove it at this years All-Star weekend in New Orleans, where he will create history by competing in five events.
The 23-year-old will take part in the dunk, skills, three-point, rookie-sophomore and All-Star game itself, saying he is taking on the workload because he may not get another chance to do all five again in the same weekend.
“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity,” Lillard said.
“So I just felt like it was something that had never been done, and I’m capable of doing all the things that need to be done in all the competitions, so I figured why not go out and be the first one to do everything and get that experience?”
When asked if he felt he might be taking too much out of himself physically, especially with his side hoping to propel itself towards a playoff berth in the West this season, the former Weber State star said it was not like playing two or three regular NBA games in-a-row.
“The skills competition takes two minutes on the court, the dunk contest maybe will be three or four minutes on the court, and three-point shooting is about two minutes,” said Lillard, whose Blazers (35-14) are the surprise team in the NBA this season.
“And it’s not like the rookie-sophomore game is a real regular season game, so I mean I’m looking at maybe an hour total of actual activity with all five things. People think there’s more energy being exerted than there actually is. It’s really not that much when you think about the time that you actually spend doing it.”
As for the dunk contest, he’s in the beginning stages of coming up with a creative way to compete with the likes of defending champion Terrence Ross (Toronto), Paul George (Indiana), John Wall (Washington), Ben McLemore (Sacramento) and Harrison Barnes (Golden State).
His personal favorites from years past were Dwight Howard’s 13-foot dunk in 2007 and James “Flight” White’s flight crew jam from the most recent All-Star weekend.
“I like stuff like that,” Lillard said. “When there’s a story attached to it, I like all that…The dunk (contest) will be fun. I think there will be a lot of surprises. People don’t really know that I can dunk.”
Lillard even hinted that he might try and pay tribute to his hometown area of Oakland, California during the dunk contest.
“That’s definitely what I’m shooting for,” he said. “That’s definitely something I’m shooting for.”
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