LeBron James is the best player in the NBA. Anthony Davis is the most explosive.
After years of potentially different answers, Steph Curry has emerged as the clear choice for best player in the league to watch (sorry Kendrick Perkins).
The coolest player in the league though? That was up for discussion. And then Damian Lillard hit that shot against Houston and all of a sudden the discussion was over.
In my decade following the NBA I’ve never seen a more perfect shot than Dame’s to sink Houston. What makes the shot so special is the magnificently abrupt shift from Lillard manically screaming for the ball because he’s so shocked at how open he is to the calm, focused, one-motion physical perfection of eyeing the hoop, fading back and to the left and watching the ball swish.
And then there’s the reaction. First Trail Blazers playoff series victory in fourteen years. The fourth time in history someone has won a playoff series at the buzzer. Your thoughts Damian? Nothing. No fist pumping, no expression on his face. Nothing. You can’t teach that.
Of course, even before the shot Damian Lillard wasn’t exactly uncool. His middle name is ‘Lamonte’, for Christ’s sake. Lillard satisfies all the aesthetic criteria of cool. He’s a smooth mover, deliciously crafty with his handle and his jump-shot is liquid. He wears number 0 (undeniably cool), plays in Portland, one of the coolest cities in America, and did I mention his middle name is Lamonte?
To be truly cool you have to be somewhat on the outer. This is what separates Lillard from other candidates to the cool throne, guys like Durant, James and Curry. Steph Curry might actually be the second coming of Jesus Christ, but Jesus is too mainstream. Lillard on the other hand is sufficiently indie. He’s acknowledged as elite, but not a top 10 player in the league. He’s not The Beatles yet, he’s still The Clash or The Who.
The other crucial criterion for cool is that you have to be a badass. This is why Allen Iverson is the coolest basketball player of all time. Like AI, Lillard is fearless. He’s a baby-faced killer. He has a delightful violent streak and attacks the rim with impunity. He’s never afraid of the moment.
Thursday night in the Moda Center in downtown Portland, Damian Lillard patted ‘the moment’ like it was a neutered puppy dog. In his third year, already an All-Star and proven playoff performer, Lillard has the confidence, authority and license to effectively do whatever he wants on the basketball court.
Against Miami on Thursday this resulted in Lillard beating Luol Deng, someone six inches taller than him, in a jump-ball, dribbling up court on the same possession and then swishing a pull-up three in Deng’s face. No emotion.
Lillard, thanks to arguably the most lopsided trade of the past 15 years, has found himself playing on the coolest, most likeable team in the league.
LaMarcus Aldridge is a monster, one of the most unstoppable players in the NBA, as well as one of the few players whose jumper catches less rim than Lillard’s. Wesley Matthews is a silky pitbull, someone who can grind and hustle with the best of them but who also isn’t afraid to occasionally hit a step-back three in Dwyane Wade’s grill, as he did on Thursday night with a smile on his face. Nic Batum is French and plays like it, seducing the rim and the hardwood with smooth movement and feathery touch.
The Blazers are for real. They’re one of the five best teams in the NBA and there are few fan-bases (if any) more deserving of the success this team is having. The Rip City fans are in direct competition with the Warriors fans for the title of best in the league.
On Thursday night the crowd started chants of ‘de-fence’ three minutes into the first quarter. At the Barclays Center those chants didn’t break out until the final 10 seconds of overtime. Like the fans in Oakland, Blazers aficionados understand basketball. They get that Batum is struggling this year, and they cheer especially loudly when he makes an early bucket. They get that Chris Kaman is the definition of a mixed bag, and they appreciate the good that comes with him and tolerate the bad. And most importantly, they get that Meyers Leonard is a lot of fun.
From the heartbreak of the 2000 playoffs to the Jail Blazers era to the basketball tragedies of Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, Blazers fans have been through more pain than seems reasonable in the 21st century. The basketball gods are New Testament though, they’re benevolent, and every now and then they’ll throw you a rope. In Rip City, that rope has come in the form of the frozen ropes that Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge launch into the hoop on a nightly basis.
The Blazers were incredibly impressive on Thursday night, tearing apart a full-strength Miami team in a 99-83 victory that never seemed that close. Their bench, wing depth and defence still pose questions though, and as good as they’ve been the past two seasons, I still have a few doubts about their title credentials.
Honestly, though, I’m not sure how much that matters. As much as old white guys on ESPN might say otherwise, sport isn’t all about winning championships. Sometimes it’s about more than that. It’s about the warm, reassuring feeling of knowing that you get to watch Damian Lillard in your team’s jersey for the next decade. That’s a feeling that is real, tangible, powerful and above all, exceptionally cool.
Nikola Jokic has scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead defending NBA champions Denver past LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers…
There will undoubtedly be upset results here and there in the NBA playoffs but there’s an overwhelming sense of fait accompli that Boston will…
LeBron James is going back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Steph Curry is headed to the games for the…
The only realistic threat to Boston’s chances of strolling through the Eastern Conference is a team that could still end up in the play-in…
Australian guards Dante Exum and Josh Giddey have both come up big for their NBA clubs in crucial wins in the lead-in to the…
Minnesota Timberwolves fans have endured plenty of pain in their 35 years of being a laughing stock in the NBA. In all that time,…
