Damian Lillard, Nicolas Batum, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
Over a two-month span before the 2012 Draft, Damian Lillard went from being outside the lottery to becoming the No. 6 pick. What changed his fate so quickly?
It isn’t quite November, and there probably won’t be any turkey on the kitchen table tonight. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have some level of Thanksgiving for how the stars aligned for the Portland Trail Blazers during the weeks heading into the 2012 NBA Draft. Almost simultaneously, two different stories were being told: one detailing how Damian Lillard and his mythical work ethic led to one of the great Draft board jumps in recent history, and two, how blessings in disguise played such a vital role.