Blazers' Damian Lillard explains his fear of statues

WASHINGTON — Outstanding Portland Trail Blazers rookie point guard Damian Lillard spent time driving through Washington, D.C. Tuesday, the day before the Blazers played the Washington Wizards.

And the historical monuments in the city freaked him out.

After the Blazers' shootaround early Wednesday afternoon, Lillard tweeted, "I like DC. I wana come back and visit the memorials even though I'm scared of statues" and "People I'm only scared of historic statues. Abraham Lincoln , MLK, etc . Had a bad experience at the wax museum lmao."

Before Wednesday's game, Lillard expounded on his issues with statues and monument.

"I've always been scared of historic stuff like that. If I see statues of Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. — all that stuff kind of gives me a funny feeling," Lillard said.

He has trouble pinpointing the exact time he fretted seeing statues and monuments but said the uneasy feeling was palpable during a visit to a wax museum two summers ago before his senior season at Weber State.

"The last room was Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln — all these big-time historic people, and it looked just like them. Same size," he said. "They had music playing in the room to set the mood, and it just threw me off."

"Ever since then, I'm done. Even at Lake Oswego (near Portland), I drive past the cemetery, and there's a statue of Jesus with his hands up. That even scared me. I don't mess with statues no more.

"It's the idea that they're from so far back, and so big in our history. Just to see something that looks so close to them, it's weird. It freaks me out."

Driving through D.C. Tuesday night with monuments lit up, "was crazy. All I could think of was Abraham Lincoln getting killed," Lillard said.

Even the idea of visiting Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot and the house across the street where Lincoln died gives Lillard the willies.

"That's nerve-wracking to me," Lillard said. "I would want to go. But when I get in there I would be scared the whole time."