Despite still being an active player in the NBA, Damian Lillard is considered an all-time great, judging from his inclusion in the league’s 75th anniversary squad, which places him alongside Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, and the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan. Despite shining as brightly as a star, Lillard humbly recognizes that he pales in comparison to the greatness of His Airness.
2022 All-Star Weekend
The 2022 All-Star Weekend held in Cleveland was a grand affair as the NBA celebrated its 75th anniversary. A significant part of the festivities was the tribute to the 75 greatest players of all time. The list included Jordan, Magic, Kobe, and other greats — as well as current stars like Lillard.
The entire weekend was a surreal experience for Lillard, who soaked in the experience and marveled at how he was in the presence of such basketball luminaries.
“I come to All-Star every year, and we take these pictures, and usually when I was younger, we take these pictures, and it will be LeBron (James), and Kobe (Bryant), and Dirk (Nowitzki), and Tim Duncan, and Dwight (Howard), and they would be the ones talking,” Lillard said in the Knuckleheads Podcast.
“But this time it was like Magic and Kareem and all these dudes, they the ones in there doing all the chatter while they’re taking the pictures, and I’m just looking around. It’s JKidd, John Stockton. I’m looking around, and I’m really in here with all these dudes.”
Jordan comes in
However, Lillard said that wasn’t the best part of the event. That came when Jordan finally arrived.
“When we get in the hallway, we see MJ walking towards us. He’s walking, and there are more cameras on him by himself than there were for all of us, and that’s when you really saw the difference of, like, man, this dude the GOAT!” Lillard narrated.
The podcast’s hosts Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles then asked Lillard if he met Jordan during that event, to which Lillard hilariously answered:
“I still ain’t never met him! I was standing next to Clyde staring at him like… that’s Jordan!”
