Last spring, the OKC Thunder made Donovan Mitchell a household name in the world of NBA hoops. Mitchell torched the Thunder in route to leading the Utah Jazz to an easy first round conquest over the laid back Thunder which was not as tough as the six games played might indicate.
Here we are a year later and everyone already knows what Damian Lillard is capable of doing on the hardwood with a basketball in his hands. Most diehards knew McCollum was one of the league’s up and coming hybrid guards, but in these first two games he’s been more than that. McCollum paired with Lillard could be proving short of the Splash Brothers they might be the best guard tandem in the NBA. James Harden and Chris Paul will have to be in that conversation as well, but thru two games in this series CJ McCollum has been the player I have watched with the most interest.
So get this…my cousin Jan flew in last night from Seattle to spend Easter weekend with the family. She tells me this story that on her United flight in first class there was this very nice black gentleman sitting next to her wearing a Trailblazers sweatshirt. She then goes on to tell me he’s in town to watch the next two games of this series and he’ll be sitting behind the Portland bench.
“Oh, really. Did you catch a name?” I ask. She says, ” Yeah, Eric McCallum? Even better—I have a picture of him on my cell and I invited him to have lunch with us on Sunday.”a
“Oh, really. Mind if I take a look at the pic?”
So…I look at the pic and it’s fairly apparent the man in the photo is the father of one CJ McCollum.
I then say, ” You were sitting next to CJ McCollum’s father and invited him to lunch with us.”
She says, ” I told him about your blog and told him to make sure to check it out during the week-end.”
“Well good, I hope he does come because that will be at least two of us who are hoping his son will be on fire and a Blazer sweep will put me out of my misery.”
Mr. McCollum—if you check out the blog here and you have any interest in joining us on Sunday for an excellent Easter meal which will include ham, Caesar salad, green beans, sweet potatoes, croissants, and multiple desserts please drop me a comment on here and we’d love to have you join us.
Mike Jackson