The lyrics, the auto-tuned voice, and the music video all played a part in earning Rebecca Black’s “Friday” the reputation of one of the worst songs ever made. Now, the criticism was a bit too much and the cyberbullying was out of control. However, if we’re just looking at the song as a whole, it’s pretty annoying to listen to. If you were with a group of people in the car listening to the radio and this song came on, it was almost guaranteed everyone would let out a collective groan before changing the station. It’s not something I ever want to listen to under any circumstance, and I’m someone who likes to listen to the High School Musical soundtrack and “Let It Go” from Frozen as my guilty pleasures. The combination of how much that song would be played and its poor quality made it just flat out irritating.
So that leads me to the question – is Damian Lillard annoying? When I say that, I’m not referring to anything he does on the court like how someone who flops and constantly complains about fouls is annoying. I’m not talking about his style of play either since last time I checked he’s not James Harden. None of that stuff. I’m focusing on the narrative surrounding him because it has become fairly annoying.
You know how in that “Friday” song Rebecca Black at one point seemingly tries to set the record for the most times the word Friday is said repeatedly? I feel like every sports talk show in the last week has decided to band together and as a unit break the record for most times they can discuss Damian Lillard being underrated/doubted. Let me ask a question. Who is actually underrating and doubting Lillard??? This is a freaking straw man and a half. Can we look at this logically for a second? He’s not better than Steph Curry who has won three titles and two league MVPs (one of which was unanimous). He’s also not better than James Harden who has won a league MVP (also has three 2nd place MVP finishes while Dame has never finished in the top three) and three scoring champion titles. However, other than those two he’s better than every other guard in the league. No one (hopefully) is saying he’s worse than Russell Westbrook who in his last three years (2017-2019) as ‘the guy’ in OKC had a stint filled with hero ball, stat padding, and three first round playoff exits (one of which came thanks to Lillard). Dame was an All-NBA first team guard in 2018 and was second team in 2019 behind guess who Curry and Harden (Curry was hurt in 2018). This notion that Dame isn’t treated like he’s one of the top guards is crap. It’s just some nonsense that’s being spit out for the sake of trying to make some underdog narrative. Lillard was the best player on all the teams fighting for the 8 seed. Making it isn’t some amazing feat that should be praised. It’s what we should have expected.
Another annoying narrative surrounding Lillard and the Blazers goes something like “people aren’t respecting the Blazers as a playoff contender”. All I have to say to that is…….why should they? With the exception of last year where they beat the Thunder and Nuggets on their way to the conference finals, they’ve never had a meaningful playoff run with Lillard (they lost in the first or second round from 2014-2018 which was each prior year they made the playoffs with Lillard). That 2019 run is soured by the fact that they got absolutely demolished/dismantled/destroyed/any other verb that starts with a “D” that shows how bad they got beat by Golden State in the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors swept them without their best freaking player in Kevin Durant!!! Where was Dame time then?!?!? Was the clock broken?!?!?
Before that playoff run, Portland’s playoff series victories with Damian Lillard were a first round series in 2014 against Houston (LaMarcus Aldridge was still Portland’s best player then) and a 2016 first round series against the Clippers (Chris Paul and Blake Griffin got injured and missed most of the series). Are we supposed to act like they’re a serious contender based off this history? It’s not like they’ve ever been a top 2 seed or something where people have actually viewed them as serious contenders. Doubting Portland as a playoff contender is like doubting that Sonic the Hedgehog is going to win an Oscar or like doubting that “Friday” would have won a Grammy. The doubt is absolutely warranted.
People are acting like Dame is the next Kobe Bryant and has this assassin mentality/killer instinct like some of the best players in the league’s history because he got the freaking 8 seed. I understand we didn’t have any sports for four months, and it’s great to watch basketball again. That said, not having sports for so long has apparently turned people into overreactors (I wonder if this is a word) and hyperbole machines. It’s nauseating at this point. Last time I checked bubble play in games aren’t what we use to measure a player’s success. It’s cool that Lillard put the team on his back and made the playoffs, but it’s being discussed like it’s this unparalleled career defining accomplishment. Can we just get more than one season of moderate postseason success and a great bubble showing before we consider Dame the next MJ, Kobe, Bird, or any other all-time great? I don’t think that’s asking for too much. If you have found yourself annoyed by the constant “Damian Lillard is slept on!!!” talk during the last couple of weeks, the good news for you is that Portland is going to get smashed by the Lakers and forgotten about in like ten days. I’m sure there won’t be any people singing Lillard’s praises in September though unfortunately that Rebecca Black song will be stuck in my head being sung forever.