Getty Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard
Brooklyn Nets point guard, Kyrie Irving may be done this season. But that doesn’t mean he’s not keeping track of who’s hot in the music scene.
Irving, the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2011 and an NBA Finals Champion in 2016 is apparently a fan of Portland Trail Blazers point guar and his music. “I have more of an appreciation for what he does because he’s actually out there, bro” Irving told close friend, Jeremiah Green during a discussion on Instagram Live on Friday evening.
“Shoutout to him. Please support Dame Dolla, bro. That’s the big homie right there.”
Irving also likes competing against Lillard. “Love that dude,” he said.
“Love competing against him on the floor, too! Killer! Killer! Oh my goodness, did you see what he did last year in the Playoffs? When you get savage enough…Look when you get savage enough to go like this [Irving waves goodbye]; like when you wave somebody goodbye from a right stepback hard sidestep from like 30 feet bro.”
The shot that Irving is referring to was a half-court buzzer beater that Lillard hit against the Oklahoma City Thunder last year that advanced the Blazers to the NBA’s Western Conference Semi-Finals
Lillard hit a 37-foot three-pointer with no time remaining to give his team a 118-115 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With that shot, Lillard and the Blazers advanced to the next round and defeated the Denver Nuggets.
Lillard told me that he relished the moment in going toe-to-toe with the Russell Westbrook, Paul George-led Oklahoma City Thunder last spring in the NBA Playoffs.
“Two star point guards going against each other,” he said.
“It was like one of the only games that was on that night. I had 50, there were so many things that went into it a big moment. It changed a lot.”
While many celebrated that shot against the Thunder, Lillard has hit some other pretty big shots.
“He did the Rockets like that on the left fading,” Kyrie Irving recounted on Instagram Live.
“I remember I was watching that the other day on Youtube. I watch everybody.”
Damian Lillard remembered that moment like it was yesterday: “I really liked crossed over and introduced myself to a different audience and different crowd of people,” he told me.
Kyrie Irving respects Lillard’s grind in the NBA Playoffs. “It’s different in the Playoffs bro,” he said.
“It’s different. It’s very different in the Playoffs. That…you have to turn into a killer. You know, it’s a different monster. You do stuff like that in the Playoffs.”