Damian Lillard Opens Up About All-Star Team Snub, and He's Not Happy

Barring injuries, Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard will not be on the Western Conference roster for the 2015 NBA All-Star Game.

He is not happy about the snub.

When All-Star Game rosters were announced, Lillard's name was nowhere to be found. However, with Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant forced to give up his spot due to a rotator cuff injury, there was still hope for the Trail Blazers star.

That hope vanished Friday afternoon when the NBA announced that the Sacramento Kings' DeMarcus Cousins would replace Bryant on the West roster, per The Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones.

Lillard responded to being snubbed once again with this Instagram post:

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

That post was accompanied by the caption below:

"

I just want to thank the coaches who feel I wasn't good enough, the fans that didn't think I was good enough and Adam Silver also for not thinking I was good enough. This isn't unfamiliar territory for me, it's actually what my life has been inspired by. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed or that I don't feel disrespected but it's not too much to handle. Not the first or last guy to be snubbed. 'You should have been there' isn't good enough for me. But anyway, the reason I'm in these shoes is because I've always use the hand I was dealt to my advantage... A wise man once told me... 'It ain't always gone be peaches and cream but somebody has to pay for the reason it's not ... One way or another' ... #ImThankful #Real #NonAllStar #RipCity #YellowTape

"

The post has since been deleted. However, an hour or so after deleting the original post, Lillard put up a nearly identical post, in which he just deleted the first part of the caption.

Lillard's Instagram post came after he had already told The Oregonian's Joe Freeman that he wasn't happy about the All-Star snub:

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I'm definitely going to take it personal. I said I'd be pissed off about it. And I am. I just felt disrespected. Because I play the game the right way, I play unselfishly, I play for my team to win games and I produce at a high level. I think what I bring to the game as a person, my makeup mentally, how I am toward my teammates, how I am toward the media, how I am toward fans; I think what an All-Star represents in this league, and what you would want people to look at as an All-Star, I think I make up all those things. For me to be having the type of season that I'm having, which is better than any one that I've had before, and my team to be third in the Western Conference, I just see it as disrespect. I'm not one of those guys that's going to say, 'Oh, I should be in over this guy or that guy.' I'm not a hater. I've got respect for each guy that made the roster. And I think they deserve to (make the team). But at the same time, I feel really disrespected, and that's just honestly how I feel.

"

Lillard, an All-Star in 2014, didn't hold back on this topic.

A couple of fellow NBA players have weighed in on Lillard's situation:

via @damianlillard

[Damian Lillard, Twitter]