Milwaukee Bucks’ new star Damian Lillard is hoping to start a new, more successful chapter in his NBA career alongside the Greek Freak. However, he is already a franchise legend with the Portland Trail Blazers after playing 11 seasons with the team. Part of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team, which was announced in October 2021, Lillard recently talked about what the achievement meant to him, during an appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles.
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Talking about the 75th Anniversary Team, Lillard claimed that he initially had no idea it was an “actual thing.” However, once he was congratulated by multiple sources, including his agent, Dame decided to have a look for himself.
Lillard claimed that it was only then that he realized the uniqueness of the achievement. “I literally didn’t know this was like an actual thing, an actual accomplishment…Once I look, I am like, I start feeling bad coz I am like, people who I grew up looking up to that didn’t make it…But I think that make it even more of a special accomplishment,” he said.
The 33-year-old also claimed that he was surprised, simply because he had always felt “slighted” due to the lack of appreciation he always got for his achievements. Talking about how he never missed the playoffs in the first 8 years since joining the Trail Blazers, Lillard suggested he always felt the criticism subjected to him was unwarranted to some extent.
“That’s why I always felt slighted…You all said you gotta win. I am producing every year, I am getting trapped, I am getting double-teamed, I am facing everything, I am still 27. We winning games, I am out front, I am not here in the West,” he said, claiming that the constant criticism and All-Star snubs made him think there was no chance of him making it to the list.
“So, just to make that 75th-anniversary team, I was surprised by it, coz if it was going to be a real thing, I didn’t think I would make it,” Lillard claimed. While the Bucks superstar did not expect his name due to the criticism that he regularly received, he was pleasantly surprised with the accomplishment.
Damian Lillard claims to have felt small while getting the NBA 75th Anniversary picture clicked
Lillard talked in length about what making it to the 75th-anniversary team meant to him. Talking about how he was generally a confident man, Dame claimed that the likes of Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas made him self-conscious.
“I felt so small. I come from a family and a neighborhood of like, confidence, in who I am. When I was there, I never looked around and felt, not small, like, but Magic, Isiah, and all these people, I am like, I wasn’t looking at myself as with them….It was crazy,” Lillard claimed.
While he was well aware of the kind of legends he was surrounded by, Lillard claimed that one man in particular was on a level of his own. That was Michael Jordan, who Lillard claimed was looked upon as a star even by the other 74 members of the honorary team.
“He is walking, and there are more cameras on him alone than all of us. He just took over the whole situation,” Lillard said.
Hence, while a part of the 33-year-old could not believe that he was selected in the team, Dame could see just how much influence MJ had, even amongst some of the biggest legends of the game.
