Blazers’ Damian Lillard Opens Up On Frustration Over All-Star Snubs

Damian Lillard is fed up.

The Portland Trail Blazers star was snubbed from the past two NBA All-Star Games, and he only made the 2015 All-Star team as an injury replacement. And despite averaging 25 points per game during the 2017-18 campaign, he likely will not be named an All-Star after coming in eighth among Western Conference guards in the NBA fan vote.

The 27-year-old is sick of being overlooked.

“I’ve gotten frustrated just for the fact that it feels like I always got to be the fall guy and every other guy has been deserving,” Lillard told ESPN. “In the past, the thing has been, ‘All right, my team has been 10 games under .500 or not in the playoffs,’ but every year we’ve found a way to be in the postseason, and this year I think we’re in much better position than we have been in the past two seasons that I didn’t make it.”

To make matters worse for Lillard, his stats are much better than many of the guards who received more votes than him.

Of the notable names who fans voted ahead of Lillard are San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who is averaging the second-lowest scoring average of his career at 9.1 points, and Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul who has missed 17 games this season. The list goes on and on.

Since Lillard’s last All-Star appearance in the 2014-15 season, he is one of five point guards, (Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Stephen Curry, and Isaiah Thomas) that has averaged 27 points per game in a season, per Basketball Reference. All of them except Lillard made the All-Star team the past two seasons.

The All-Star reserves will be announced Tuesday.