Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard is unquestionably one of the best point guards of his generation. As it turns out, though, he is not only an outstanding basketball player, but is also a great human being — a straight shooter who is not afraid to call out those who he believes to be in the wrong.
This is exactly what happened over a year ago when the Blazers' Twitter account posted a somewhat insensitive tweet following the trade of 6-foot-6 guard Tim Quarterman to the Houston Rockets. Quarterman was shipped off to Houston in exchange for cash considerations, and in an attempt (a rather successful one at that) to generate a punchline out of the deal, the team tweeted out an image of a bag of money holding a press conference.
"This trade is a blessing. I'm ready to grind, Rip City. I think I can make an immediate impact out on the floor." — Cash Considerations pic.twitter.com/iRkC5vfwps
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) June 28, 2017
Lillard was having none of it, and immediately called team president Chris McGowan to raise his concern regarding the inappropriate nature of the jest.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘You don’t do stuff like that.’ I mean, come on, man,” Lillard recalled, via Jason Quick of The Athletic. “That’s like looking down on people type stuff. We are all going to have our day where something happens, and you don’t know how the tables can turn.”
McGowan saw Lillard's point, and admitted that this confrontation actually served as a turning point for him.
“The first person I heard from was Damian,” McGowan said. “He came at it from the human side of things. And in hindsight, it was a mistake. This kid, his whole life just got turned upside down. Going forward, I had a new perspective.”
This just shows how Damian Lillard is a one-in-a-million type of guy. His influence extends far beyond the four corners of the basketball court, and he is certainly putting it to good use.
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