NBA Legends Praise Damian Lillard After Insane 37-Foot Shot to Win Series: ‘God DAME!’

By Caleb EcarmaApr 24th, 2019, 10:40 am
 

The basketball media world exploded last night after Portland Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard drilled a 37-foot buzzer-beating jump shot to win the game and finish his team’s NBA playoff series with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“It was a great feeling when it left my hands,” Lillard said of the outrageous shot. “It felt good.”

While normally shots around the 40-foot range are reserved for last-second heaves with little planning, Lillard actually had enough time on the clock to try and score closer to the basket but chose to fire off the long-range heave.

“I didn’t want to put it into the referee hands,” he said while explaining his thought process before the shot. “Where if there was contact or maybe they get away with contact or I end up having to take a tougher shot because there was contact and they don’t want to decide the game. So I was standing there looking at the rim and I was like this is a comfortable range.”

Paul George, the Thunder forward guarding Lillard during the final seconds of the game, called Lillard’s three-pointer a “bad, bad shot,” despite the guard shooting for 8-of-12 from 30-plus feet this postseason. The Trailblazers star responded to his opponent’s comment with a simple “lol” on Twitter.

Past and present NBA stars and sports media figures praised Lillard’s performance. Los Angeles Laker legend Kobe Bryant used the moment to note that he highlighted the 28-year-old guard’s talent back in 2013, while LeBron James simply tweeted an emoji of a watch to suggest that it is “Dame Time” — a nickname for Lillard that references his ability to perform in the clutch.

Check out a few of the reactions below:

Watch the shot above, via the NBA on TNT.

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Caleb Ecarma

Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma