HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Kevin Porter Jr was in Cabo over the summer with K.J. Martin and Ben McLemore when he happened bump into Damian Lillard.
“He didn’t know it was me at first,” Porter recalled Friday after his Rockets lost to Lillard’s Blazers 104-92. “I came up to him like ‘Dame! What’s up’ and he was like ‘Oh! Little bro!’, and we just chatted up.”
Porter first met Lillard by chance when he was playing pick up as part of the Team USA U18 team at the Blazers practice facility.
“I just came to the (Blazers practice facility) to get some shoes so I could go work out somewhere else and they had the scrimmages going on,” Lillard said. “I sat in there, and I watched. A lot of NBA personnel in the building and they talk about all these players, and I was like maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, but I think he the best player in here.”
“That's what I thought at the time. I was like he's better than all these dudes that y’all saying is, whatever the rankings are.”
Lillard started to take an interest in Porter that day and that has continued. The two spoke for a while by a pool in Cabo this summer where the younger Porter bounced questions off the future hall of famer who offered his advice.
“Him basically telling me what I could become, and the things I should look forward to, and him just trying to make me a better player for the season and just gave me tips.”
Porter led the Rockets on Friday, scoring 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, to go with five rebounds and five assists. He’s averaging 13 points and five assists 12 games into his third NBA season and first full season with the Rockets. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for the 21-year old, but Lillard will always be one of his believers.
“He's misunderstood,” Lillard said. “He’s gotten in a little bit of trouble, had some issues, and in this league and in professional sports it’s easy for people to just judge young athletes, and I think he's been a victim of that.”
For someone of Lillard’s status to take an interest in him means a lot to Porter.
“I feel like he respects me as a person,” he said. “When you get that respect from a type of person like him, cause he’s a genuine, wholesome person, and you want to be close and circle with people like that, so just to have that is dope.”
While Lillard respects Porter the man, he also really likes Porter the basketball player.
“The talent level is through the roof,” Lillard said. He can do everything. Personally one of my favorite players in the league, and I'm just happy to see him get an opportunity to spread his wings.”
Lillard and Porter will meet again on January 28 at Toyota Center and then play a back-to-back in Portland on March 25 and 26.