The Two Lillards: A Different NBA Lottery Story

While you're waiting for (and then debating) the results of the NBA Draft Lottery, 2016, here's a tale of another drawing that, though much smaller, had kind of nifty results.

Long-time readers of Blazer's Edge will recognize the smiling face in the photo accompanying this article as Baby Point Guard, my son (and not so "baby" anymore...time does fly). Baby Point Guard's school is holding their annual Book Fair this week. This year they want to collect enough money to buy a book for every child in school, so they held a drawing. For the low price of $1 kids could draw from a bowl of candy. Most of them would walk away with just that: a piece of candy. But if they drew a specially-marked piece they won their choice of several posters on the wall.

Knowing this was coming, Baby Point Guard's mom left him a dollar for the drawing. On his way to the candy bowl, he saw a classmate looking at a poster. She liked it. She did not have enough money to buy it. So he pulled out his lottery dollar and handed it to her. (This is the kind of moment where you suspect you might be raising your child OK, despite all the mistakes you make as a parent.)

As Baby Point Guard approached the candy bowl, he no longer had enough money to enter the drawing. He dug in his pockets and found a couple coins to put in anyway. The teacher holding the bowl took pity on him and said it was close enough. He reached in, drew out a piece of candy, and guess what? It was one of the special pieces! He could hardly believe it. He already knew exactly what poster he wanted. A big, shiny picture of Damian Lillard was hanging there on the wall for all to see. Now Lillard would hang on his wall too...not as the 6th overall pick, but the clear #1 selection by a mile, taken before famous luminaries like My Little Ponies and Ninja Turtles.

After school Baby Point Guard skipped home with the great news, only to find that one more surprise awaited him. His mom had been by the Book Fair and noticed the Lillard poster already. She had bought him one secretly. So now when he got home, he had TWO Damian Lillards! This absolutely sent him over the moon because Damian Lillard is his favorite player ever ever EVER and the only thing better than fielding one #0 would be fielding two.

The story isn't that remarkable. Understanding how all this happened is certainly easier than understanding how Cleveland won the NBA lottery three times in four years. But it's a nice reminder about why we gather around sports and other community endeavors. It's not about rules or getting stuff, it's an opportunity for kindness. A boy was kind to a classmate; a teacher was kind to a boy; a mother was kind to her son, and all this resulted in TWO Damian Lillards! What a nice payback for a nice act.

--Dave blazersub@gmail.com / @DaveDeckard / @Blazersedge

Read about my now-available first book here and order it here.