I traveled 17 hours from Italy just to watch my idol Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard (basketball player) has always been an idol for me, I’ve been watching his games since I was a child.

For this reason, after buying tickets for the Portland TrailBlazers game, I decided to make the poster in his honor, but I didn’t think I would be able to take a picture with him.

I arrived at the game two hours earlier, when there weren’t lots of people yet.  Clearly, nobody was allowed to meet the players, who were focused in warming up.

I had a stroke of luck, since the second coach of Portland saw my poster and realized I am Italian.  Since he used to play basketball in Italy, he got close to me and started talking to me, asking me where part of the country I was from.  Thanks to him, I was also allowed to go through the court and take the picture with my hero Damian Lillard. 

Obviously, it was a very exciting moment.

Paolo 🇮🇹
exchange student from Italy
living with the Smith family in Coquille, Oregon