Damian Lillard

Damian Lamonte Ollie "Dame" Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned third-team All-American honors in 2012. After being selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Lillard was unanimously voted the NBA Rookie of the Year. Nicknamed Dame Time for his history of making big shots in the clutch, he has received seven NBA All-Star and seven All-NBA Team selections, the only player in Trail Blazers franchise history to do so. In October 2021, Lillard was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He also won a gold medal on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo. Using the stage name Dame D.O.L.L.A., Lillard has enjoyed moderate success as a rapper. His first studio album, The Letter O (2016), charted on the Billboard 200, while his second and third albums, Confirmed (2017) and Big D.O.L.L.A. (2019), placed on the indie charts. In 2021, he released a fourth album, Different On Levels The Lord Allowed. High school career Lillard began his high school career at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo, California, and joined the varsity starting lineup as a freshman. He sought to transfer when his coach did not return to the team. For his sophomore year, Lillard transferred to St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, the same private school that had produced former NBA point guard Jason Kidd; but by year's end, a lack of playing time prompted Lillard to transfer schools yet again. He went on to play for coach Orlando Watkins at Oakland High School, where he was First Team All-League his junior and senior years. Over his junior campaign, Lillard averaged 19.4 points a night. As a senior, he averaged 22.4 points and 5.2 assists per game while leading the Oakland Wildcats to a 23–9 record. Regarded only as a two-star prospect by Rivals.com, Lillard was not heavily recruited out of high school, but he accepted a scholarship offer to play for Weber State, a Big Sky Conference program in Ogden, Utah. According to Lillard, Weber State was the first college basketball program to show any interest in him when head coach Randy Rahe showed up in person to watch Lillard play a game in Texas during his junior year of high school.