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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Lillard keeps promise to mother, gets college degree

Blazer guard also named Western Conference player of week

By , Columbian Trail Blazers Writer
Published:

TUALATIN, Ore., — Blazers guard Damian Lillard was selected as the NBA’s Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday. But another accomplishment, much more important to him and a promise he kept to his mother, also came to light this week: getting his college degree from Weber State.

Over the summer, Lillard completed his degree in Technical Sales after finding different times over the past few years both online and on campus.

“When I got there my mom said ‘Get a degree,’ ” Lillard said. “Then after I left I was going to the NBA. ‘What am I going to need a degree for?’ was kind of what I was thinking.”

As the demands that come with burgeoning stardom came at Lillard, there was more doubt that he would have the time to wrap up his degree.

The final step was a week before training camp, when he went to take a final exam at 7 a.m. before continuing his offseason workouts in Ogden, Utah.

Lillard himself admits that he was not sure that he would finish his degree after forgoing his last year of eligibility to enter the 2012 NBA draft.

While the promise he kept to his mother, Gina Johnson, was what initially drove him, Lillard began to realize it was not just for her that he wanted to finish.

“I said because I told my mom I would do it and as I’ve gotten older it’s become something that’s important to me,” he said. “Why go to school for four years and soak up everything that I soaked up in that experience and not finish it?”

But then when it came time to actually break the news, Lillard hilariously dropped the ball, so to speak.

“She actually, she got mad at me,” he said.

While Lillard was going over logistics with his agent for trying to go to his graduation ceremony during what will be playoff time, his cousin overheard the conversation and instantly posted a congratulations to Dame in an instagram post while Gina was in the kitchen.

“Then she came downstairs and started telling me congratulations to my face,” Lillard said. “And my mom was like ‘What!?’ Because I forgot to tell her. That’s how she found out. ‘How you’re not going tell me that?’ “

The Blazers have to run the gauntlet for 24 more games before getting to sign up for more.

And the next two teams that they’ll face this week could very well be the ones they see once that gauntlet is done.

The Blazers practiced Tuesday before a back-to-back which begins Wednesday in Los Angeles against the Clippers. They will then fly over night back to Portland before taking on the Dallas Mavericks in a TNT-televised clash.

“Anytime you’re playing somebody you’re competing with right next to in the standings there is a little bit more importance,” head coach Terry Stotts said.

While a glance at the standings — where the Clippers and Mavericks are fifth and sixth in the Western Conference, respectively — would indicate a meeting in April, Stotts will not indulge in thinking about those matchups yet.

“I think it’s too early to be talking about the playoffs,” Stotts said. “There are 20 games left, a fourth of the season. The playoffs take care of themselves. It’s a different mindset. I think our approach every game.”

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Columbian Trail Blazers Writer