Disputing Ownership of Damian Lillard’s Wrist-Point Gesture

While the gestures that athletes make to celebrate their successes are an enhancing part of the fan experience, the question of who owns which gesture is rarely vague.

Homer Jones of the New York Giants was the originator of the touchdown spike in 1965, while Elmo Wright performed the first “touchdown dance” for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1969. Of course the finger wag in basketball is attributed to Dikembe Mutombo, and the Michael Jordan tongue wag even made it into film form, if you happen to like Bugs Bunny.

However, Micah Peters of The Ringer suggested that Blazers star Damian Lillard is no longer the owner of his “Lillard Time” wrist point gesture.

His argument centers around the Blazers struggling while two other point guards, John Wall of the Washington Wizards and Isaiah Thomas of the Boston Celtics, have begun using it themselves.

Peters grants it to Thomas because of Thomas’ superior fourth quarter stats this season, which would be like claiming that Hakeem Olajuwon should own the finger wag because the Rockets played better than the Nuggets for most of their respective careers.

For his part, Lillard did not mince words:

“I just think it’s funny that people acting like I haven’t done that since 2014-2015. I started that a long time ago. I’m sure everybody who has done it is aware. I’m sure they’ve seen me do it.”

Intrepid Blazers fans claim that Lillard started using the gesture in the 2013-2014 season, his second in the NBA.