Damian Lillard was snubbed again.
The owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, despite all the buzz of February’s MVP and his supernatural game at the start of the season, was denied his spot in the 2021 All-Star Game after a weighted vote by fans, media and NBA players left out the Western Conference Team.
Lillard was elected incumbent by the media and NBA players, receiving the second highest number of votes among Western Conference guards on both ballots. But he finished third in the fan vote, behind Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic. The result was a tie between the two dynamic game creators and, in the end, Doncic won the tiebreaker – and initial wave – because he received more votes from fans.
Doncic will join Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Los Angeles Lakers striker LeBron James, Los Angeles Clippers striker Kawhi Leonard and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic on the Western Conference team.
Lillard has won five All-Star spots over the years, but never one. And he may never have earned it so much.
Lillard led the Blazers through a season full of injuries, with a dominant mix of scoring, plays and late-game shots. He has an average of 29.8 points, 7.7 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game, and more than a third of the way through the season, he ranks third in the NBA in scoring, 10th in assists and second in three points (112).
Throughout all of this, he has been remarkably hooked, cementing his status as perhaps the NBA’s most feared endgame killer. In clutch situations – defined as those where the score of a game is within five points in the last five minutes of regulation or overtime – Lillard leads the NBA in scoring (82 points), occupies third place in assists (14) and is shooting 63.2%
And perhaps most importantly, their game led the Blazers to an astonishing 18-10 record – the fourth best in the West – although they played more than half the season without starters CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic.
By comparison, Doncic’s game has been mesmerizing – he averages 29.1 points, 9.4 assists and 8.6 rebounds per game – but the dismaying Mavericks (13-15) is 10th in the West.
The initial lineups were revealed at TNT before their double departure on Thursday night and the Inside the NBA the crew unanimously agreed that Lillard had been despised.
“I still think Damian Lillard should be the starter,” said Shaquille O’Neal. “Nobody is feared in the game like the guy Damian Lillard.”
Kenny Smith added: “Popularity contest, Luka will win. But, as Shaq said, the most feared man in basketball now is Damian Lillard. He was my pre-season MVP because I thought he could do that. “
But in the end, it all came down to a popularity contest – literally – and fans chose Doncic over Lillard.
Lillard was it is close to becoming only the seventh player in the franchise’s history to win a spot in the All-Star game. Clyde Drexler (1992-94), Bill Walton (1978), Maurice Lucas (1978), Geoff Petrie (1974) and Sidney Wicks (1973) were elected All-Star starters as Blazers, while LaMarcus Aldridge started the game in 2015 as a injury replacement for Anthony Davis.
Holders of this year’s game – scheduled for March 7 in Atlanta – were determined by the combined votes of fans, media and NBA players on a weighted scale. Fan ballots accounted for 50% of the vote, while player and media ballots accounted for 25% each.
– Joe Freeman | [email protected] | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.