Holdahl: Fans Camp In Line For Nine Hours For Blazers G Damian Lillard's ROY Adidas Shoes

Last week, we noted that Adidas was releasing a special "Real Deal" Rookie of the Year edition shoe for Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.

Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com has a nice article from a limited release event for the shoes held at Portland's Compound Gallery on Thursday.

What took Lillard aback was seeing a line of people braving the wind and rain for as long as nine hours outside of Compound Gallery in downtown Portland just for a chance to buy his limited-edition adidas Real Deal sneakers.

"It is kind of surprising because you see this with Jordan's shoes," said Lillard of the people who waited for the opportunity to buy one of only 530 pairs of Real Deals produced by adidas to celebrate his Rookie of the Year season. "When the Jordan's come out, everybody is camping out waiting for them. Whether it's raining, snowing, no matter what it is, they're waiting for the shoes. And I appreciate the people in Portland sitting out, camping out waiting for my shoe."

Here's a video recap from YouTube user heskicks.

Lillard was recently named "Sneaker Rookie of the Year" by a shoe website. He appeared in his first Adidas ad earlier this year and starred alongside Washington Wizards guard John Wall and Philadelphia 76ers guard Jrue Holiday in a nationally-televised ad that has run during the playoffs. Lillard recently offered a behind-the-scenes look at that video shoot.

Adidas also unveiled this shirt honoring Lillard at his Rookie of the Year press conference.

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