Damian Lillard discusses personal connection to “Fruitvale Station”

Damian Lillard, point guard for the Portland Trail Blazers, spoke with Yahoo! Sports last week about the movie “Fruitvale Station” currently in theaters. The biopic tells the true story of Oscar Grant, a young man who was killed by a transit police officer on New Year’s Day in 2009. The powerful movie hit Lillard extra close to home since he knew Grant personally.

As the second-year guard explained to Marc J. Spears:

"He went to high school and played on the same football team as my brother. I used to always be around my brother at the high school and crossed paths with [Grant]. We were on the bus at the same time. We were always in the same areas."

Lillard said he was nervous about seeing the movie, but in the end he felt it did a good job portraying the harsh realities of life in Oakland:

"You don’t see a lot of movies that are actually based in Oakland and give a chance to see what people are going through there every day. It was nerve-wracking to see in the movie how they had everything down pat and how they eventually went through the day in the life of a lot of people, a lot of young men in Oakland."

(For those now in need if a more uplifting Lillard story, check out how he atoned for brushing off a young fan.)

[Source: Yahoo! Sports]