Damian Lillard is a veteran at being snubbed from the NBA All-Star Game.
In 2013-14, as a sophomore, he was playing with found money. Second-year players are seldom All-Star locks.
Last year, he only made the Western Conference All-Star squad as an injury replacement. He didn’t take that too well. He took it personally. But with so many injured players on the docket, he at least knew he would eventually get a nod.
There will, most likely, be no such nod this year.
Lillard was once again left off the West’s All-Star faction. The coaches recognized Klay Thompson instead—not an indefensible decision, but a surprising one.
Just not to Lillard himself.
He was, apparently, expecting this:
"If you guys couldn't tell, I was prepared for this. I was expecting the worst." – @Dame_Lillard on All-Star snub pic.twitter.com/PUDojJEtzi
— Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) January 29, 2016
With two All-Star appearances already to his name, Lillard needn’t take his absence personally. The All-Star tilt is fun, but it’s no longer the career measuring stick of years past. It’s anecdotal evidence in legacy talk; it is not—or at least shouldn’t be—the foundation around which entire arguments are crafted.
And it helps that Lillard is basically an All-Star anyway, just without the official recognition. He is having an incredible season with the Portland Trail Blazers. They have one of the league’s top-10 offenses and have snuck into the West’s playoff race despite losing four of last season’s five starters.
Damian Lillard is the only remaining starter from the 2014-15 team, and he’s currently on pace, per Basketball-Reference, to join Stephen Curry and LeBron James as the only three players to ever average 24 points and seven assists per 36 minutes while shooting 35 percent or better from downtown.
The kid is OK, and he’s going to be OK.
