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In the 2022-23 NBA season, Damian Lillard was named as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. He joins NBA legends past and present that gathered around the 2023 NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland, Ohio. As one of the youngest players on the prestigious list, the seven-time NBA All-Star brought home valuable memories that he will remember for the rest of his life.
As Lillard shared his NBA 75th Anniversary experience in the Knuckleheads podcast hosted by former players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles, he cited the time Michael Jordan made his presence felt in the festivity:
"We walk out of the room where we take the big picture and when we walk out it's like all these cameras – I mean, there's so many stars and all these legends in there and when we get in the hallway, you see MJ walking towards us – he wasn't even there for the big picture. He just got there," tells Lillard at the 31-minute mark of the interview.
The longtime barbershop debate on who is the greatest player of all time has been answered according to Damian Lillard with the way Michael Jordan captures the attention of the room with all the other great players:
"He's just walking and it's more cameras on just him by himself than it is on all of us and it was like, that's when you really saw the difference of like, this dude's the GOAT. Like when he was walking, everybody was just staring at him. The top 74 was looking at him," Lillard said.
Watch: Damian Lillard's full interview with the Knuckleheads
Damian Lillard didn't know that the NBA 75th Anniversary team was real
Damian Lillard was one of the active players in the NBA's 75th Anniversary team, and prior to being named to the prestigious list, he didn't even know that there was such a thing.
As he revealed on "The Knuckleheads", Lillard thought that all the buzz about the 75 greatest NBA players was just something that media and fans would like to talk about:
"The craziest thing about it, I didn't know it was seen a real thing," said Lillard. 'Cause you remember when it came out, it was like I saw multiple people on social media like this is my Top 75 – like people were saying their top 75 so I thought it was just like one of those trending things where people just saying who their top 75 are."
The moment it felt real for Damian Lillard was when he got the call from one of his friends in the music industry and agent that he made the list:
"I think it was my guy Lotto, he was like working with me on my music like a long time ago. He called me he was like you made the Top 75 and then right after, my agent called me and was telling me about it and I was like literally didn't know this was like an actual thing like an accomplishment," said Lillard.
In his 12th season and now playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, Damian Lillard has averaged 25.2 points, 6.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game. He is also a seven-time NBA All-Star and won a gold medal for Team USA in the 2022 Tokyo Olympics.
