Damian Lillard is scoring in ways basketball fans have never seen except for Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamberlain.
Lillard, who showed love to his teammates after notching a career-high 71 points against the Houston Rockets on Sunday, did not get that same love back from the NBA. After the game, the league office assigned him to take a drug test.
Given how well Lillard played, it’s hard to imagine that this was just a random assignment testing for performance enhancements. Plus, as noted by Casey Holdahl, this wasn’t just a regular drug test. This was one that required needles and a subsequent band-aid.
Dame said tonight was the first time he had been blood-draw drug-tested following a game in his entire career.
His full thoughts on it: pic.twitter.com/ZKu5vIKmrd
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 27, 2023
Here is what Lillard had to say after the process was over:
“I mean honestly I was like: Are ya’ll serious? I did the urine test yesterday, then they backed it up with the blood draw tonight after the game. That was actually my first time in my career being tested after a game. And then aside from that, they know that I’m scared of needles. I know I got a lot of tattoos but when you doing the blood draw, it’s different than tattoos. But it brought me down from here to the floor all the way until it was done.”
It is undeniably suspicious that Lillard would have to get his blood drawn for the first time since turning pro in 2013 immediately after notching a career-best scoring performance.
Earlier this season, the NBA also issued an eyebrow-raising drug test to Ja Morant after a quick return from an injury.
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