Damian Lillard’s Buzzer-Beater Cemented Him as ‘Coolest’ NBA Player

Damian Lillard’s buzzer-beater against the Oklahoma City Thunder will be one of the biggest moments (if not the biggest) remembered from this year’s NBA Playoffs. As Nick Greene of Slate writes, the shot cemented Lillard as the “coolest” player in the NBA:

I am not an arbiter of coolness. I drive a Subaru and have a pair of “gardening shoes,” for Pete’s sake. I say things like “Pete’s sake,” for Pete’s sake, but it’s obvious even to me that Damian Lillard is the coolest player in the NBA. Who else could score 50 points while hitting a series-clinching buzzer-beater and act like it’s no big deal? At that point you’d imagine his adrenal glands and nervous system would take the wheel and prompt just a tremor of excitement, but Lillard is apparently cool even at the cellular level.

Greene says Lillard’s already cleared out his spot on the coolness rankings, but a championship wouldn’t hurt:

There is nothing left for Lillard to do to prove his coolness. Winning an NBA championship might be superfluous at this point, but it certainly won’t make him any less cool. As such, he has the green light from me, a Subaru-driving amateur gardener, to go for it.

You can read more from Greene’s piece here.