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OAKLAND, Calif. – It's a couple of hours at Oracle Arena and Damian Lillard is thinking about pizza.
Sitting courtside ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors, Lillard points to a spot inside the empty arena.
Section 113, Row 10.
It's where he's from when he's dad, Houston Sr., used to bring Damian and his older brother, to Houston Jr. , to watch lottery-bound Warriors teams. They were fixtures in those seats; the boys would even walk to the arena when they dad could not take them.
"I remember they used to give out pizzas, like during the timeouts," Lillard says. "Thunder [the Warriors now-defunct mascot] would come out and they would have boxes of pizza that they would be looking to give out to fans. Me and my brother has been so much so that we have so much fun, so we are always ready to eat pizza. That was what we would eat.
"It was funny, they were funny because they knew me and my brother was real fans."
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Lillard and his brother had what he called "free run" of the arena, as he notes that security was much more lax in the days before the Warriors became a dynasty. They'd like to go to the halls after playing games, going to the bathroom to get a hot dog and soda, hanging out between the locker room and parking lot to see the players.
"I put every single player on the team," Lillard says, and he rattles off the names of the forgiving Golden State teams that have won the season. He was a big fan of Antawn Jamison. He mentions Larry Hughes, Bobby Sura, Gilbert Arenas, Mookie Blaylock, Paul McPherson, Troy Murphy, Jason Richardson, Cummings, Vonteego Cummings, Tony Farmer and Adonal Foyle, among others.
"I put all those dudes!" Lillard says, a glimpse of a kid's giddiness in his voice. "I got all their autographs."
Rushie of the Year and Four-time All-Star whose 37-foot buzzer-beater that has eliminated Oklahoma City Thunder serves as the signature moment of these playoffs. So far.
Now Trailers Trailers Blazers the West Finals 1-0, the Oakland kid has an opportunity to close the Oracle before the Warriors move to San Francisco's Chase Center next season.
"It's a storybook," Lillard says. "Just this being the last year playing in Oakland [and] me growing up here. … It's a special ending. Hopefully, it'll be right for us. "
All the Trail Blazers have become the first Western Conference team in five years to eliminate the Warriors from the playoffs. The odds are certainly stacked against Portland and Lillard. However, those who witnessed Bill Russell, Gary Payton and Jason Kidd as the best basketball players in the city has produced, have hope .
"The perfect ending to this story is for you to go to Game 7," Orlando Coach Orlando Lillick's High Coach Orlando Watkins says, "And the Oakland kid hits a game-winning shot at the fields reeling out of the playoffs and close to the Oracle. "
IN THE MIDDLE of the old Oakland Gymnasium Lillard and Adidas refurbished a few years ago, Watkins stands and recalls the one time.
"We're in practice and I'm just like, 'You guys are playing selfish!'" Watkins says. "What lady heard was, 'You're selfish. "
It could not have been a problem to be coached hard – such as it was accepted that it was late to study hall – but this criticism really hit a nerve. He is going to the next couple of days, refusing to shoot the ball.
Finally, hours before a game against a crosstown rival during a race playoff, Watkins pulled Lillard aside. The coach told him that he was the only one who was selfish, not Lillard in particular.
Lillard replied that, as the Wildcats' leader, he took any criticism of the team personally. And he just could not stand being considered selfish, of all things.
Watkins laughs about it now, as it goes to work in a gym that serves as proof of Lillard's generosity.
Oakland High is the city's oldest high school, having opened in 1869, and much of it is outdated. The gym was too until a few years ago, when Lillard and Adidas completely remodeled it, getting rid of the ugly orange paint and replacing it with the school colors, replacing the scoreboard, sneakers and shot clocks, adding banners and refinishing the floor. They also renovated the room, putting on a new floor and painting the walls.
"I'm not here to be exclusive I do not take pride in being exclusive, like, 'Oh, lady made it to the NBA.' That's not what it is, they can not listen to their parents, but they'll listen to me. "
Damian Lillard
Hip Hop Club puts high school in the classroom where it is paid for a soundproof recording studio and for state-of-the-art equipment.
Lillard, who released a rap album as "Lady Dolla," celebrated all along with the rap concert along with Fetty Wap, DJ Esco and Lil Uzi Green for Oakland High students in the gym. His goal was more to inspire than to entertain.
"I do not have a typical story," Lillard says. "I was not a high school phenom I was not a big-time prospect even in the draft before my last year in college.A lot of people notice when you look at the NBA, they come up in it. They've gotten all the stuff on YouTube, they're up and running, so it's kind of like people investing in their careers.
"With my teachers and my coaches, it was more like a character and a man from these people, and they did not know that I was going to become this, and they are investing in me to get this far I know how important it is because of what my road is.
"I know how important it is for people to just – sometimes you just need to be in your corner."
For Oakland High basketball players, Lillard is not just a guy who signs an occasional check or made sure they had a shoe sponsorship, as he did for his old AAU program. He is not just an All-Star whose picture is on the wall. He is one of them, a role model within their reach.
"He's just a perfect storm," Watkins says, as senior assistant Shoshana Towers-Cabrera nods in agreement. "He's all about Oakland." "It's very nice to have that I can not, but they know they can hit him on [Instagram] or hit him on Facebook, and he'll know who they are. "
A trip to the NBA Finals is on the line. Do not miss any of the thrilling action.
Kill. May 14
• Blazers-Warriors Game 1 | 9 ET
Thu. May 16
• Blazers-Warriors Game 2 | 9 ET
Sat. May 18
• Warriors-Blazers Game 3 | 9 ET
My. May 20
• Warriors-Blazers Game 4 | 9 ET
Lillard treats his old neighbors in Brookfield, a small, tough pocket of East Oakland, the same way. His offseason cookouts in the old park – a place where he used to witness violence and drug deals – get bigger by the year.
Lillard feeds the whole neighborhood, provides backpacks for kids and pays barbers and hairstylists to get them looking fresh for school. He brings in bouncing houses and all sorts of other activities. And he mingles with his people, holding his baby with one arm and shaking hands and giving half hugs with the other at last year's event.
"I'm not here to be exclusive," Lillard says. "I do not take pride in being exclusive, like, 'Oh, lady made it to the NBA.' That's not what it is, they can not listen to their parents, but they'll listen to me.
"They'll listen to me when I tell them, 'You do not have to follow what is typical in our city.'"
Lillard has made Portland, Oakland is literally always on his heart. The city's logo – the tree on the street signs that the Warriors used for their uniforms – is tattooed across their chest along with "Oakland" in large letters and "Heart of the City" at the bottom. That loyalty shows how he treats the people from his hometown.
"This is who he is," said Aaron Goodwin, an Oakland High fellow who has represented Lillard since he was a relatively unknown lotter from Weber State. "That's how it was raised.
"You've got to remember where you come from."
FOR THE RECORD, Lillard never planned on trolling the Warriors.
Lillard did not know about the massive billboard Hulu bought outside Oracle Arena before it went up earlier this postseason. Interstate 880, thrilled to see Lillard's picture looming so wide over his hometown.
"If they had asked me, I would probably say that I'd rather go outside the Moda Center in Portland," Lillard says. "But it's pretty cool that it's in Oakland." "Everybody has a picture of it."
It was quite the creative marketing by Hulu, which blasted a quote to Lillard across the top of the billboard:
"I'D NEVER SELL OUT." EXCEPT TO TELL YOU HULU HAS LIVE SPORTS. "
Was Lillard, the All-Star point guard who had pledged his loyalty to the Trail Blazers despite little playoff success, taking a jab at Golden State superstar Kevin Durant? Was there a shot at the Warriors for Oakland abandoning after the season at the Bay for the Swanky New Chase Center they're building in San Francisco?
"He's much more respectful than that," Goodwin says. "He would not do anything like that intentionally."
Sure, but the marketing stunt paid off, has the billboard created in a large part to its location.
And there is also plenty of truth in advertising. Ask around Oakland, and it's not hard to find folks who can confirm Lillard would never sell out.
"People from Oakland do not say, 'I'm from the Bay,'" Lillard says. "We say we're from Oakland, because it's not the same.
"We say we're from Oakland, man, and that means something to people." That type of pride. "
(Editor's note: Hulu is majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns an 80 percent share of ESPN.)
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