Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard is one of the biggest names in the NBA today.
When you are that caliber of star, people hang on your every move. No detail, regardless of how small it is, goes unnoticed.
Lillard learned that lesson the hard way at summer league this week.
During a recent summer league outing, eagle-eyed fans noticed something peculiar about Lillard’s phone screen. The visual largely speaks for itself:
Dame you not on the phone pic.twitter.com/z7MlrJiHcp
— Hand down, man down (@HoopsHotel) July 10, 2022
Dame ain’t on the phone 😂 pic.twitter.com/mXf0bfLKhf
— Stevie West (@BruhBroBreh92) July 10, 2022
The reactions were swift:
is dame pretending to be on the phone
— liverbleed (@liverbleed) July 10, 2022
— Elvin (@thisiselvin) July 11, 2022
he’s just like me https://t.co/vMLbF9P6WT
— sam ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) (@icecreamyoga) July 11, 2022
— Andrew (@_DrewRyan) July 11, 2022
the worst part is that Dame doesn’t keep portrait lock on https://t.co/bUUEhRcfm0
— OLIVIA witherite⁷ (@Oliviawitherite) July 11, 2022
I did this at the mall to avoid the guys always trying to clean one of your shoes and dude called me out on not being on the phone https://t.co/BFP2vtEbo2
— Give me a Chef not a Baker (@SznPanthers) July 10, 2022
Lillard isn’t alone for getting attention in regards to something like this.
You will recall, fans were in a frenzy recently when they spotted what LeBron James brought in a Ziploc bag to a summer league game.
Phone games aside, this is shaping up to be a big next few months for Lillard. He made a very public play to recruit Kevin Durant, only to be largely ignored.
The Blazers’ best offer for Durant is a matter of public record.
With Durant pretty much off the board, it’s unclear how Portland plans to improve the roster. Jerami Grant was a nice pick-up, but is he a legitimate No. 2 option on a championship-contending squad? Probably not.
DK Metcalf kept it real on the Zach Wilson drama. https://t.co/DnVdUabvnt
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 11, 2022
Lillard has made it clear that he will accept a trade under one condition, and if the Blazers get off to a cold start in 2022-23, chatter regarding him being on the move will intensify once more.
What will Lillard and his squad ultimately be able to accomplish next season? Time will tell.
Related: Mark Cuban On Players Like Kevin Durant Going From Team To Team