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From NBADraftBlog.com
Draft fans and pundits everywhere always love the story of the small school guy who gets his dream and is chosen in the NBA Draft. However, Damian Lillard, out of Weber State, is not your typical small school player. Lillard was under-recruited coming out of high school, so Weber State ended up being his destination.
It didn’t take long for Lillard to make an impact, and by the middle of his sophomore year, he was on the NBA’s radar, and high school recruiting “experts” were trying to figure out what went wrong. A natural scorer, Lillard showed that he could do much more – distribute, rebound, play tough defense, and make people talk about Weber State again.
Bouncing back from an injury last year, Lillard picked up right where he left off and he became a must-see player for basketball fans all over the country. Proving all he could in college, Lillard decided to bypass his senior season and enter the NBA Draft.
I had the opportunity to talk to Lillard, while he is in his hometown of Oakland preparing for NBA workouts, about his game, leaving school and more.
Category : Blog
Matt Barnes lifted his practice jersey to show the tattoo he has of his mother, Ann, across his abdomen.
It’s actually something the Lakers forward refers to as “a mural” – her image, with wings of an angel attached. He had it put there two years ago.
“This keeps her around,” he said.
Four years ago this November,Barnes started a foundation and website called Athletes vs. Cancer (www.athletesvscancer.org). That coincided with the anniversary of the Nov. 27, 2007, passing of Ann Barnes just five days after Thanksgiving and 26 days after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.
Mother’s Day doesn’t get any easier for the former UCLA star living in Redondo Beach. But knowing he’s done more to help others get checked early for cancer and perhaps prevent the kind of pain the 32-year-old oncewent through can make himfeel as if he’s doing something productive for hismom’s memory.
Barnes discussed this special day and his foundation after a recent Lakers practice:
QUESTION: What has Mother’s Day meant to you over the last couple of years?
ANSWER: You never want to say you take your mom for granted because you think she’ll always be there. That’s just the kind of sense you have. I think the day means more now. She was my best friend, someone who I could confide in, who had the answers. She was always everybody’s mom when I was growing up. The whole neighborhood it seemed relied on her as a mother figure. Mother’s Day now is a lot more special to me than maybe it used to be.
Category : Blog
Damian Lillard wants to be on a Top 10 list and he isn’t thinking about the Late Show with David Letterman.
“I think I can get drafted in the top 10,” Lillard says. “That’s my goal, that’s where I want to get drafted at and it’s possible, so I’m just going to do everything in my power to make it happen.”
The two-time Big Sky Conference MVP has already defied the odds to become a consensus first-round NBA draft pick out of Weber State, a school that has never had a first round pick.
The Big Sky has only had two first-round picks in its history; Lillard is projected to be the highest draft selection from the league since Michael “Sugar” Ray Richardson went fourth overall in 1978 — 12 years before Lillard was born.
The NBA Draft will take place on June 28 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and the former Weber State standout hopes to be there. Projected lottery picks are invited to the “green room” to wait for their name to be called by NBA commissioner David Stern.
Since announcing on April 4 that he would forgo his senior season at Weber State, Lillard has been in his hometown of Oakland, working out four to five hours a day, five days a week, with a trainer and a strength coach.
He also hired an agent, Aaron Goodwin of Goodwin Sports Management, and expects to work out for seven or eight teams before the draft. Lillard has also been invited to the NBA draft combine in Chicago, another chance to turn heads in NBA front offices.
“I just want to show them my athleticism,” Lillard said. “I know they know that I’m athletic but I don’t think they know how athletic. In the interviews, I want them to know what kind of person I am and what I value.”
The off-court interviews with NBA execs don’t stress Lillard.
“I don’t have to prepare for that, I’ve just gotta be myself,” he said. “I know that being myself is good enough for them.”
NBA insiders are already impressed by what they saw during Lillard’s junior season at Weber State, where he was the second-leading scorer in the nation.
Category : Blog
Complex.com and Nicekicks.com gave Nate Robinson props this weak for being the of the NBA’s best sneakerheads. On the court, NiceKicks.com nominated Nate for the Top “Kicks on Court” for the 2012 NBA season. Off the court, Complex.com named Nate as a sneakerhead you must follow on Instagram.
Category : Blog
Tina Thompson may be in training camp with the Seattle Storm, but her heart remains in Houston. That’s where Thompson’s son, Dyllan, is staying with his grandmother as he finishes up the school year. Because Thompson lived in Los Angeles year-round while playing for the Sparks the last three seasons, and Houston before that, this is the first time basketball has kept her apart from her son for an extended period. And she misses him badly.
“I’m not normal when he’s not around,” said Thompson, who signed with the Storm in February. “This is rather difficult. I think he’s probably taking it a lot better than I am because he’s in his comfort zone, he’s at home. He has all the things that he loves to have around him. Of course he misses me and I miss him too. But we Skype every day, we talk every day. Although we’re not in each other’s presence, we’re kind of like still there.”
Still, Thompson’s maternal instincts kick in. She worries about Dyllan being uncomfortable, and can’t wait for when school ends in a couple of weeks and he can join her in Seattle. Spending a summer with a WNBA team has become the usual routine for Dyllan, who turns seven on Saturday. Since he was a baby, Dyllan has followed Thompson everywhere throughout her career.
“My son has literally just kind of adopted the lifestyle himself,” Thompson said. “I think if he hadn’t meshed into the lifestyle so easily, then I would probably be doing something else right now. Dyllan is definitely my priority. How comfortable he is in this lifestyle is important. He’s been great.”
The result has been a childhood that’s anything been ordinary.
“I’ve been able to experience so much through basketball,” said Thompson. “In the last six years, that he’s been able to experience those same things is pretty awesome: Going to the Olympics, being in China, being on the Great Wall of China. Those are experiences that don’t happen every day.”
Category : Blog
