Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard Gave 76ers Rookie VJ Edgecombe an Assist

Philadelphia 76ers rookie VJ Edgecombe caught Damian Lillard’s attention early, and Edgecombe credits the Portland Trail Blazers star with helping him after a rocky start to his college career at Baylor University.

On a recent episode of “Podcast P with Paul George,” Edgecombe explained the story and how his relationship with the nine-time NBA All-Star began. Edgecombe, the No. 3 overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, said he attended Lillard’s camp for high school prospects and noticed that no matter how many games were going on simultaneously, Lillard was at his court watching. Edgecombe would go on to earn MVP honors at the camp and Lillard’s number in his cell phone.

That contact would become important after Edgecombe’s first game in college at Baylor. It didn’t go well: Four points, one assist and three turnovers in 29 minutes. But Lillard and Edgecombe got in contact after the game, as Edgecombe explained on the podcast.

“Bad first game. He was like, ‘Bro, you know what you can do. You can’t let one game carry on for the next couple games because in college you only get so much.’ I just took that advice and ran with it. Forgot about the first game. Ever since me and him have been locked in. That’s my dog.”

As a bonus, we get some talk with Edgecombe and Paul George about the shot. You know the one. 2019 NBA Playoffs, Damian Lillard sends Paul George and the Oklahoma City Thunder home with a game-winner from deep, right in George’s face. Co-host Dallas Rutherford asked Edgecombe if it was a good shot or bad shot, a reference to George calling it the latter at the postgame podium. Edgecombe answered “that’s a good shot” to much amusement and proceeds to give a thoughtful answer as to why. Most interesting perhaps was Paul George’s response.

“I know how elite he is, his range. Obviously, he could shoot that sh*t effortlessly. I wasn’t coming off or trying to be a hater on that, specifically. It was just it was a bad shot in terms of like, I felt, clock’s running down, and I’m at his mercy. You know what I mean? Like he got the last shot, six, seven seconds left on the clock. Try to get something closer or work like, he could have drove me back and took a three-pointer closer in. So that was the only thing that I was like, ‘It was a bad shot.’ Because of time and possession.”

The whole clip is six and half minutes and worth a listen.