Two brothers claim they were assaulted by members of Damian Lillard’s entouraged after taking a picture of Portland Trailblazers rookie, The Oregonian reports.
The brothers told KGW in Portland that they took a picture of Lillard as he was headed to a parking lot around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning in the Old Town area of Portland. One of the brothers said Lillard was upset and asked, “Did you just take my picture?”
“And his entourage just turned around too and they’re like ‘did you just take a picture of Damian Lillard?’ And I was like –and I said ‘Yeah, I did.’ And so I saw that he was clearly upset, they were upset and I was like, ‘Can I apologize to him? Like I’ll go up right now and apologize to him,’” the brother told KGW.
The brother said the issue turned into an all-out fight within minutes. The second brother says his nose was broken and he needed stitches in his lip after he was repeatedly punched and kicked in the fight.
The brothers reportedly were treated at the scene by Portland Fire & Rescue for facial injuries.
Though Lillard, who won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award, reportedly was not involved in the alleged assault and is not a suspect, one of the brothers blames him for instigating the fight.
“Damian Lillard basically instigated it because he actually looked like he was going to go up to my brother and start fighting him. And since he did that, the rest of the guys started getting riled up too and like they thought it was okay to just start fighting out of nowhere,” the second brother told KGW.
Lillard was the sixth overall pick by the Blazers and averaged 19 points and 6.5 assists per game in his rookie campaign.
As The Oregonian points out, Lillard won an NBA community assist award in March for his “commitment to anti-bullying and his ongoing support of local, regional and national organizations that share his passion for promoting respect for all.’’
