Damian Lillard-Portland Trail Blazers

           College basketball recruiting has experienced a dramatic increase in public popularity over the past decade. With such showcase events like the McDonald’s All-American Game, Jordan Brand Classic and USA Basketball, most basketball fans are already familiar with players like Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Jabari Parker long before they stepped into the spotlight of NCAA basketball.

            After being heavily recruited throughout high school, or even earlier, basketball elites will line up their hats—or as Arizona freshman, Stanley Johnson, did, show off his shoes — and announce which big-time program has made the best case for the player to commit to its school. In many cases, the recruit’s decision is broadcast in front of thousands of viewers—students, alumni and staff, biting their nails and hoping to see their logo stand out amongst the others.  

            The instant the decision is announced, the recruit’s name is splashed across social media and nearly every basketball fan in the country is instantly aware of which logo the player will be sporting the following fall.

Many of these players go on to lead such renowned programs like Duke or Kentucky or to a high seed in the NCAA tournament before being picked up in the NBA Draft’s Lottery.

For Portland Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard, however, his trip to being the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery was a bit different than most of these players.

Growing up, the 6-foot-3, 195 pound point guard from Oakland, California received little attention for his basketball skills compared to other players in his class. He was not invited to play in high school all-star games, by no means had big-time college coaches knocking on his door, and in retrospect, the first time he really introduced himself to the nation was while shaking David Stern’s hand on stage at the Barclay’s Center during the NBA draft.

In fact, Lillard attended three different high schools due to complications on the basketball court. Striking the rawest nerve relates back to his sophomore year season at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California where, according to Lillard, he did not receive any playing time at all from head coach Donald Lippi.

Lillard was, and still is eight years later, so frustrated by his lack of playing time at the end of his one and only season with the Pilots that he decided to transfer to Oakland High School, where he would earn much more playing time, lead the league in scoring and finish his high school career receiving first team all-league honors his junior and senior seasons.

“That was big for me.” Lillard said of his decision to transfer, “I was so pissed off about (not playing). I felt like it was me against the world. I just wanted to prove (Lippi) wrong.”

As upset as he was with the season, Lillard said it played one of the biggest roles in molding him into the player that he is today. He gained confidence from the extra work that it forced him to put into improving his game and enhanced his faith in knowing that he could have the success on the basketball court for which he had always strived.  

One person that Lillard distinctively recognizes for sticking by his side during his rollercoaster ride of a high school career is Raymond Young, coach of the AAU Oakland Rebels. Young met a then-5-foot-5 Lillard when Damian was in the eighth grade. The two would train together for the remainder of that year before Lillard joined the Rebels.

According to Lillard, Young stressed the importance of working hard every day in order to earn a college scholarship.

“Anytime we went on the road and would want to do something, he would always say, ‘This is not a fun trip. It’s a business trip. You don’t have a scholarship, yet.’ He kept us hungry.” Lillard said, “He taught us how to work.”

Although steadily improving his game in high school, Lillard still was not heavily recruited by college coaches. However, he has no complaints. His big-time offer did not come from Mike Krzyzewski or John Calipari, but instead it came from Randy Rahe and the Weber State Wildcats.

Having won six NCAA tournament games in only 15 appearances, the mid-major school in Ogden, Utah was by no means a nationally recognized basketball program before Lillard’s arrival in 2008.

Lillard did receive scholarship offers from other schools, but Weber State’s persistence and early belief in his potential is what set the school apart from the rest. Rahe and the rest of the Weber State coaching staff were the first to recruit Lillard, and when other schools tried to jump on the bandwagon, it was too late to sway him to their side.

Had he been faced with different opportunities earlier in his recruiting process, Lillard still does not think he would have changed anything regarding his decision to play for the Wildcats.

 “They represented everything that I was raised on: hard work, loyalty, being pushed...” Lillard said. “They told me, if you don’t go to class, you’re going to get sent home. If you don’t work hard, you’re not going to play.”

He added that he appreciated the apparent honesty in Weber State’s recruiting process.

“The whole recruiting process, it seemed like (other schools) were telling me, ‘You’re going to have everything and be great (if you come here).’ It kind of worried me because it was like this is what they tell everybody that they recruit. But for Weber State, it was like ‘I’m not going to kiss your butt. It’s going to be like this, and if you don’t like it then you can go somewhere else.’”

Lillard earned conference Freshman of the Year and first-team All Big Sky honors during his first year at Weber State. His progression escalated during his sophomore season when he averaged 19.9 points per game, leading the Wildcats to its second-straight regular season conference championship, while Lillard was named Big Sky Player of the Year. 

After a foot injury forced him to take a medical redshirt during his junior season, Lillard came back for the 2011-2012 season averaging 24.5 points per game, leading the nation in scoring for most of the year.

Less than seven years after riding his high school team's bench, Lillard finished his college career as the No. 2 scorer in Weber State history and entered the 2012 NBA Draft as arguably the top point guard prospect in the country. 

"With the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, the Portland Trailblazers select: Damian Lillard out of Weber State University."

These twenty simple words, most of which David Stern had uttered thousands of times before, meant more to Lillard than any other words he had heard through this point in his life. Receiving his red and black flat brim Trail Blazers hat, walking across the stage established that he had officially made it, as it does for most players on this late-June night. 

But for Lillard, it meant much more. Standing center stage, shaking David Stern's hand gave him the satisfaction that he had accomplished what he had set out to do seven years earlier: proving Donald Lippi wrong.

Lillard did not need national recognition in high school all-star games or a big-time college scholarship to make a name for himself. In 2013, he was unanimously named the NBA Rookie of the Year—only the fourth player to do so. The following season, Lillard became the first player ever to participate in every skills competition at the NBA All-Star game. Now, he is leading the Trail Blazers through its second-straight playoff appearance.

In a way, Lillard may not be the same jaw-dropping, buzzer-beating, series-winning player that he has proven to be today had he not been tested so much in high school. Lillard’s confidence that he gained with the extra time that he was forced to devote to his game in high school is still carried with him in every game that he plays today.

“I think there are a lot of players that can shoot the ball. There are a lot of players that can make plays and that can make big shots and do a lot of things. That’s the NBA. But I think that when it comes to the confidence and the situations that I like, my approach to the game sets me apart from the other players that I go up against.”