The home is secluded and peaceable, a contemporary construction with massive home windows on the finish of a protracted driveway. It was completed roughly a 12 months in the past, simply earlier than its proprietor, Damian Lillard, was traded from the Path Blazers to the Bucks. Lillard returned as quickly because the season ended and has been within the Portland space for many of the summer season, maintaining issues, in his phrases, “actually easy.”
Every little thing he wants is right here, together with a state-of-the-art fitness center, the place we’ve set as much as shoot the duvet of SLAM 252. Behind one basket, stretching the complete size of the wall, is a blown-up picture of Lillard’s series-clinching three-pointer in opposition to the Rockets in 2014; behind the opposite, the unforgettable shot that knocked out the Thunder in 2019. Different images marking vital moments in Lillard’s life and profession encompass the courtroom—of household and buddies, of award ceremonies and celebrations, of dunks and game-winners. “All a part of the story,” he says.
SLAM 252 that includes Damian Lillard is on the market now.
A 12 months in the past, Lillard wasn’t positive the place the subsequent chapter of that story would unfold. After requesting a commerce in July, his summer season plans needed to be altered. He couldn’t play competitively—couldn’t prepare as rigorously as he likes to—figuring out that an harm would compromise negotiations. He waited three months till the cope with Milwaukee was executed, leaving him with just some days to pack his luggage and alter to his new scenario earlier than coaching camp started. It was all so hectic.
This summer season has been a refreshing change. Much less enterprise, extra household. Much less uncertainty, extra peace. Much less ready, extra motion. Lillard has been in a position to give attention to his coaching, embracing a holistic method that features a strict anti-inflammatory eating regimen. He even spent 4 days in Las Vegas figuring out with retired Navy SEAL David Goggins.
Because the 2024-25 season looms, Lillard is ready in a manner that wasn’t attainable final September, each bodily and mentally. Right here, he displays on the previous 12 months, his transition to Milwaukee, constructing chemistry with Giannis Antetokounmpo and far more.
SLAM: What was it prefer to work out with David Goggins and the way did that come about?
Damian Lillard: We had had many conversations over the past two-and-a-half years about getting collectively and coaching. And he would at all times inform me, like, ‘Man, I may take you to the subsequent stage so far as your conditioning and your thoughts.’ And I needed to do it. It was only a matter of discovering the time and alternative that match each of our schedules. And that point got here this summer season.
It was positively a problem bodily. Numerous these workouts and conditioning drills that he pushes you thru are a problem. It pushes you previous your limits. However I feel it was extra of a psychological factor than something. You notice how onerous it’s to do these issues, after which he’s always demanding extra. I walked away from it simply understanding myself slightly bit higher, so far as like what it’s a must to give. There have been a whole lot of moments [where] I used to be able to give up. And he didn’t say, ‘Simply give me slightly bit extra.’ He was demanding much more after I had nothing left. He stored saying, ‘Don’t simply survive, you gotta conquer it.’ And the truth that I used to be ready to do this, I feel it did change one thing for me mentally so far as after I really feel like I’m breaking down and sporting down.
SLAM: Reflecting on final season, what are the challenges that include adapting to a brand new group that individuals on the surface are inclined to overlook?
DL: I feel the primary factor folks don’t perceive is the change that it’s for the particular person—the change that comes with selecting up and going into a brand new atmosphere. Generally you allow one job for one more job and also you may need to relocate, however lots of people go job to job domestically. They don’t must pack up their lives and go to a totally totally different place. And that’s not one thing that everyone experiences the identical as us.
The quantity two factor is having to be taught to work with any person new. And never simply having to—being anticipated to work collectively and determine it out immediately. And I feel that’s one thing folks don’t perceive. They simply take a look at, This participant’s nice, that participant’s nice, you bought this, you bought that, they usually simply assume it’s purported to work. However you gotta determine the way it works for everyone. Me taking part in with Giannis is one factor, however we’ve to determine how we work finest and the way that works for everyone, as a result of there are a whole lot of guys which have to have the ability to do what they do finest and be ready to succeed for the group to succeed. So I feel lots of people take a look at two [people], they usually don’t take a look at the large image of the complete group.
SLAM: Now that you simply’ve been in a position to get settled a bit in Milwaukee, is there a stage of consolation and peace that you simply assume will translate to the courtroom?
DL: I positively assume there may be. Like I mentioned, with the ability to come again and do the whole lot to organize myself to the very best of my capability is the very first thing. I do know that when this summer season ends and I prepare to return to Milwaukee, I’m gonna return ready, not simply due to what I did for my physique, my PT, my power and conditioning and my eating regimen—all of these issues are nice for me bodily however with the ability to come right here and I didn’t say, All proper, this summer season I’m gonna take off and go on all these holidays and do all this stuff. I spent a whole lot of time with the people who I actually care about and that I wish to be round, and that’s my youngsters, my mother, my nephews, my sister, my brother, my cousins. We didn’t do a complete lot, we simply spent a whole lot of time round one another. And I feel that that did me very nicely this summer season. So going again figuring out that I’m bodily ready and I’m mentally ready and it’s a extra acquainted scenario. We gained some stability with [head coach] Doc [Rivers]. Understanding who I’m gonna go play for, having a a lot better understanding of the group, figuring out guys now—I imply, it’s simply totally different. And all of these issues give me a distinct stage of peace going into it than I ever may’ve had final 12 months.
SLAM: You talked final 12 months concerning the problem of determining who you might be on the Bucks. With a 12 months below your belt, have you ever figured it out?
DL: I feel I positively have a a lot better concept coming off of final season and solely attending to know the workers higher. Even over the summer season, spending time round them, speaking to them, and in addition with the ability to step away and look again, I’ve a a lot better concept what is critical for me. I do know that I don’t must play the identical kind of recreation that I performed for the primary 11 years of my profession, however I feel my mentality needs to be what my mentality has at all times been. As an alternative of making an attempt to come back and overly slot in, I feel I used to be introduced in to be who I’m. I spent an excessive amount of time making an attempt to ease my manner into, What does it appear to be?, as a substitute of simply asserting myself and being who I’m. Wanting again now and in addition being there for a while, I feel my understanding of that’s a lot better.
SLAM: How has your relationship and chemistry with Giannis advanced and the place is it at now?
DL: I feel it developed nice over the course of the season. He’s not an excellent talkative particular person and I’m not an excellent talkative particular person myself. Over time, I’ve develop into [more outspoken] the extra that I begin to construct relationships with folks, particularly on the group. And I feel because the season went on, me and him positively began to speak increasingly more, and I began to come back to his home to do conditioning or work out collectively. We’re on the telephone. I’m sending him clips and stuff like that. And this summer season, we’ve been in fixed communication. We each know that we’d like one another. I feel he’s excited coming into the season similar to I’m, as a result of we turned so much nearer because the season went on and we began to be taught [about] one another so much higher. So having a full offseason of being related to one another and with the ability to go into this subsequent season, I feel we’re each going to be prepared. And we’re each excited to do what we gotta do.
SLAM: Are you able to speak particularly about constructing pick-and-roll chemistry with Giannis? How has that developed?
DL: To begin the 12 months, we simply weren’t in a whole lot of pick-and-rolls collectively for a very long time. We had been taking part in in transition, or I used to be in ISO, or he was in ISO. It simply wasn’t a whole lot of pick-and-rolls. One of the best ways to get chemistry in pick-and-rolls is to be in a whole lot of pick-and-rolls collectively. And I feel it acquired to the purpose with Doc the place he was having us in observe, simply, Set it. Throw it to Giannis. Giannis, give it again to Dame. All proper, Dame, throw it again. All proper, Giannis, uphill DHO. It was nearly just like the group was laughing at us, simply repping it out again and again.
Then in video games, we ended up being in a whole lot of these actions collectively much more the second half of the 12 months. I began to see what he was pondering, and I feel he began to see what I used to be pondering, after which we might discuss it. When you begin to construct chemistry, then I can begin directing slightly bit extra as a result of we’re extra related, as a substitute of me simply making an attempt to inform him what I need him to do [when] we haven’t even actually labored collectively on it. [I was] wanting to present him the respect of, like, he may need one thing that he needs me to do some bit totally different, however it’s onerous to determine that out while you’re not in a whole lot of pick-and-rolls collectively. And because the season went on, I began to see how I could make the sport simpler for him, and I feel he began to see what I wanted from him to be free out of the pick-and-roll. And from right here, I feel it’ll proceed to simply get higher.
SLAM: Do you’re feeling like individuals are overlooking the Bucks heading into this season?
DL: Yeah, I feel individuals are positively [doing that], and that’s how the league is. It’s like, on to the subsequent factor. There are youthful groups on the rise, you’ve got groups that made large free company strikes, groups that made trades, all varieties of issues occurred. So clearly that’s going to be what’s attractive. After I acquired traded to Milwaukee, it was like, Oh, the Bucks gonna win! Everyone simply jumped on it, you realize? So when one thing main occurs or one thing large occurs for a group, particularly if it’s already a superb group, like after all [that’s the reaction]. Rightfully so, all of these varieties of groups are going to be talked about on the high.
SLAM: On the Membership 520 Podcast, you talked about how consistency tends to get boring for folks, to the purpose the place it begins to go neglected. Are you able to elaborate on {that a} bit and the way you’ve seen that play out throughout your profession?
DL: I feel early in my profession, I at all times felt like I used to be underappreciated. I had an underdog mentality. Generally even after I was getting credit score, I felt like I wasn’t getting sufficient credit score or they had been ignoring what I used to be doing. After which I feel I reached some extent in my profession the place I began to get acknowledged how I felt I must be acknowledged. After which quick ahead to being named to the seventy fifth Anniversary Staff, [that was] like, the last word nod to what my physique of labor has been and the way constant I’ve been since I stepped foot within the NBA.
However on the podcast, I used to be actually simply saying, like, I’m not loud and I’m not saying an excessive amount of and doing all this stuff, however I’m at all times productive. Even in a season like final season the place I really feel like I may have been higher in a whole lot of areas, I nonetheless had a productive season, and we had been nonetheless a profitable group all through the season—a two-seed for just about the complete season. I feel folks simply type of look previous it due to what they assume we must be or no matter their private opinions are. However the truth of the matter is, I’ve at all times been productive. That is gonna be my 13th season, and I proceed to simply present up and be productive. And my group is at all times a superb group. Over time, individuals are similar to, Yeah, you don’t have a hoop. What’s subsequent? However I feel they get uninterested in the truth that I simply do it again and again and again and again and over. It’s like, Do one thing else. When it’s actually, like, I’m displaying up, placing my finest foot ahead.
SLAM: We see how a lot enjoyable you’re having together with your youngsters in the present day. Are you able to describe the motivation that you simply get from them?
DL: I get a whole lot of motivation from being a dad and from my youngsters as a result of how I used to be raised—like, the ideas and the values that my dad and mom raised me with—having my very own youngsters, now I acquired much more satisfaction about these issues. There are some mornings the place I gotta work out at 6:30 and I’ll get my youngsters up and convey them in right here. They may have a pill or no matter it’s so they’re entertained and never getting in the way in which, however they’ll sit over there whereas I work out as a result of I need them to have the ability to see, like, this didn’t simply come out of nowhere. You gotta work onerous for stuff. You gotta do stuff that you simply don’t wish to do. Quite a bit goes into the life that you simply guys have. And I need them, from a younger age, to grasp what it means to work onerous for issues and sacrifice. I say that to say, they must see me be the last word instance of what I preach to them.
And the motivation is available in the place, if I’m being criticized, or if I’m struggling, or if one thing makes me uncomfortable, I take into consideration my youngsters after I’m having to answer these varieties of conditions. I do know that, particularly with the web and cameras being in every single place, there’s gonna come a day the place my youngsters will likely be sufficiently old to grasp like, This was taking place to my dad or, This was what folks had been saying about my dad, and there may even be proof of how I responded to these issues. Regardless of the scenario is, I’ll be the instance for my youngsters and my nephews and nieces, the place they’ll be like, He’s not simply telling us this, there will likely be proof of, like, That is who I’m. I feel that’ll give them a way of satisfaction, as a result of they’ll see it with their very own eyes. And I really feel that manner as a result of that’s how I really feel about my dad. He mentioned all these things to me and I see him stroll that out. In order that’s the type of motivation I’ve. It’s not about—if I win a championship, that’d be nice. That’s a cherry on high. However the way you characterize your self and what you stand on as a human, I feel that’s most essential. So I get a whole lot of motivation from the alternatives to point out that even when it’s a tricky or a nasty scenario.
Portraits by Gabe Pineda, Victory Inventive Group.
