Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum is more than aware that superstar teammate Damian Lillard uses slights as motivation to prove people wrong.
For some baffling reason, Dame, who has been balling out his mind for the Blazers this season, was left out of the Western Conferences All-Star Game starters. Turns out, his tiebreaker with Luka Doncic was determined through fan voting.
As far as McCollum is concerned, this latest disrespect to Lillard's name only fuels his bid to chase that All-Star Game MVP as well as the regular season MVP by the end of the campaign. The injured Blazers playmaker re-tweeted Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers and offered his latest take on Lillard on Thursday.
Early fav Sesson MVP too . ESP after that debacle https://t.co/5XPlqiWRTk
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) February 19, 2021
Blazers fans know that Damian Lillard has practically leap-frogged fellow superstars LeBron James and Joel Embiid in the latest discussion for early MVP frontrunners.
Apart from tallying sensational averages of 29.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.7. assists and 1.1 steals on 45.1 percent shooting from the field and 38.4 from deep, he is practically putting the entire team on his shoulders sans McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. The Blazers have won their last six games and have gone 8-2 in their last 10 matches. The injury-riddled team is currently ranked fourth in the stacked Western Conference Standings with an 18-10 win-loss slate overall.
Lillard has proven time and time again with the Blazers that he is one of the best talents of this generation. Still, it seems that he continues to be one of the most under-appreciated players in this league. We've already seen the 30-year-old supreme scorer go berserk inside the NBA bubble last year after getting mocked by several Clippers players.
If Lillard approaches the All-Star Game with the same chip on his shoulder in representing the Blazers, then it is clear that McCollum is right — that MVP plum is as good as his.
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