FanPost

Who's Gotta "Deal With It" Now?

Forgive me if that header sounded accusatory. It's not. I'm a HUGE fan of Damian Lillard, and I, like most of you, got a big kick out of all the "DEAL WITH IT" memes have been floating around social media for the past year or so.

But I think this all-star snubbing represents his first really big setback as a professional, and I think he's gotta be careful how he proceeds. More than that, I think we all need to be careful how we respond to our own personal and professional setbacks.

Here's the intro to a piece I wrote on my blog about it...

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So now, it's official.

The NBA has selected DeMarcus Cousins to take the place of the injured Kobe Bryant, which means that we can officially say that Damian Lillard, master of the step-back three, end-of-game assassin, and the object of countless internet memes, like this:

...has officially been snubbed from the 2015 NBA All-Star team.

For once, I agree with Kanye.

This is, according not only to Portland fans but knowledgeable pundits around the league (including TNT's "Inside the NBA" resident curmudgeon and non-jumpshooting-team-supporter Charles Barkley) a ridiculous miscarriage of justice, deserving not only of all manner of shrill internet complaints, but in the case of the Portland police department, an actual robbery investigation.

Not to take anything away from other players, but across the blogosphereand the Twitterverse, the consensus is that Lillard well-deserving of this All-Star nod. And it's important to remember that despite the league's fan-based selection process, the All-Star Game is not just a popularity contest, but an important progress metric in the overall career trajectory of an NBA player. Getting snubbed for an All-Star team is like being passed-over for a well-deserved promotion at the office. And it doesn't matter whether this happens in a small office or on the brightest stage of professional sports, people will notice.

So yes, Lillard was robbed. Among reasonable people, there is virtually no disagreement.

Where I do differ from the masses, however, is in how Lillard can, should, or will respond.



Read the rest here.