Martinez: Blazers G Damian Lillard Named 2013's "Sneaker Rookie Of The Year"

Juan Martinez of KicksOnFire.com names Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard the "Sneaker Rookie of the Year" for 2013. Lillard is an adidas endorser.

Now more than ever, figuring out what rookies are going to pan out is more of a crapshoot. With so little data to pull from, a sneaker brand has to be extra careful to invest in the right players and either go big on one rookie or sign a group of kids and hope one of them pans out.

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From the start of the season, Damian Lillard has been the rookie to watch. While some of that might be attributed to being on a bad Portland team, Lillard has shown more than a few flashes of brilliance that make him an ideal type of player to pitch product to the public. So we've seen him in everything that adidas has to offer and he always looks damn good doing it; here's hoping the trend continues and he, John Wall, Jrue Holiday and eventually Derrick Rose can lead adidas into the future.

Lillard appeared in a nationally-televised ad for adidas earlier this year.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter