I mean I got a mind of my own
If you wanna put everybody on the spot, I gotta put you on the spot.
What—what?
It's only fair.
See, that’s really not fair.
I'm headed to Portland, Oregon, to interview the Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.
So we're going out west to find out what he thinks of himself.
See you in six hours.
Going over my notes about Dame one more time before we land.
Made it to Portland, and it is raining of course.
I met up with Dame at the Blazers practice facility.
You gotta hold it up to this camera.
Like a pro.
Cut!
[Laughing]
What is it like playing in the Western Conference?
It's a war zone. Every game is tough.
Who’s the most fatal opponent in that war zone?
I think Golden State.
Cuz you can beat Golden State for three-and-a-half quarters.
It could be six minutes left, you up 15, and they will erase that lead in two minutes.
I think where people get it mixed up is when they allow that to turn into a fear factor.
I think sometimes people fear them, and when they sense that little bit of fear, you done.
I mean, you gotta go out there and play against them like you know you gonna beat ‘em.
Give ‘em something to think about.
How did it feel to be swept in the opening round of the playoffs in 2018?
That was the one that really stung because not only were our expectations so high
to make a push, but we lost in the first round, and we got swept with home-court advantage.
So it was like, after we lost to New Orleans, I was just hurt for, like, a month.
I was just—I didn’t wanna watch basketball, nothing.
I just was hurt.
OK, so every guest I have— I ask you to take me to a place
That is what we're going to do right now
You ready?
OK.
Take me to your first tattoo.
My mom was dropping me off at school. It was the day before my first day of college.
We went to the mall, and there was a tattoo shop in there.
We walked in, and I got my first tattoo.
And it was like the Warner Brothers sign.
But it was an “LB” instead of a “WB,” and I got “Lillard Brothers” above it.
So my brother got the same tattoo, and that was my first tattoo.
Take me to the first music album you bought.
The first album I bought was "Tha Block is Hot", Lil Wayne.
[Singing] Tha block is hot, tha block is hot, ha ha, tha block is hot.
Take me to the time that you realized college scouts were wrong about you.
I went to Adidas Nations in Chicago after my sophomore year.
And I had a real good camp.
But then, like, after the camp was over, they did, like, all the evaluations, and they was like,
“Yeah, you know, not really a good jump-shooter off the dribble.”
-It was like—it was stuff that I really disagreed with. -Course, you’re, like, known for now.
Like, I didn't take it personal, but I was like—I really disagreed with it.
I was like, “No, I don’t think—I don't agree with that.”
Yeah.
And that was the first time I was like, “They wrong.”
Like, they wrong. Like, they hatin’.
That was like—
“They hatin’ on me!”
It was typical, but I was like, “They hatin’.”
I never told nobody I felt that way.
Social media went kinda crazy after a quote came out
where you were talking about not wanting to sell yourself out for titles.
I don't feel I need to prove to anybody how bad I wanna win it
cuz it shows in my work. It shows in my approach to the game.
I'm not gonna go and try to team up with top players in the league
cuz I know that’ll make the chances better because that's not who I am.
You know, I’m a “get it out the mud” type of person.
It’s been a good time to have to work and grind and do all this stuff
for everything that I get cuz when I get it, I'm like, “I worked for this. I earned it.”
And it’s more gratifying, you know what I'm sayin’?
So on the outside, they gonna say, “Oh, he'll never win in Portland.
They don't have enough. They don't have this.”
But to me, it's like, if we never get it done, we never get it done.
So is it accurate to say that failure for you isn’t not getting a ring;
failure for you is not being who you are?
Exactly.
Some of the best players ever—I was watching Michael Rapaport and he was talkin’ about,
“When you think about Gary Payton, you never think about him in Miami winning a ring.
You think about Gary Payton in Seattle.”
And Allen Iverson in Philly.
Like, you just think about their legacy and what they did.
For me, like I said, I just focus on what means something to me.
Working for it, and if it don't happen, I can live with it knowing that,
you know, the effort and the care was there.
You know, I went after it.
So this way that you live, it seems as though you have a code that you live by
Basically.
What is that code?
I mean, I think it's pretty simple, man. Just stay true.
You know, if you famous, you a professional athlete, celebrity,
whatever you wanna call it, and it's easy to do things that you might not do.
I'm not willing to do the other stuff and step outside of
being true to myself cuz that’s just not, just not who I am.
But this want to be loyal and stay true to who you are,
to me, seems very unique, especially for an NBA player.
I mean, I got a mind of my own, and I’m kinda just comfortable in my skin.
I'm comfortable with who I am,
so I know that I'm so much more than a basketball player, for one.
So for somebody to have criticisms or comments or
whatever about me as a basketball player, that’s—that’s perfectly fine.
If it came down to it, would you want to be remembered as being a loyal person,
or would you want to be remembered as being a champion?
Well, I think we all wanna be a champion
An NBA champion? You know, that's different than just being a champion in life.
When I'm done playin’ and when I walk away, nobody could ever say nothin’ bad about me
other than, “He didn't win a ring, but he was the realest dude that I worked with.
Even when he was a max player, he was always solid with me.”
And they'll respect me and appreciate me past my career for that.
How much of this code that you live by is based off the way you grew up in Oakland?
I think that’s naturally an attitude of people from Oakland.
It’s just like, “I'mma appreciate the battle and the hard times.
So when I overcome all of it, it’ll feel better.”
But I think it’s just the foundation of my family.
My AAU team, I played for the Oakland Rebels.
And the Rebels, we had to do fundraising just so we can afford plane tickets
and team shoes and to go play in these tournaments in Vegas and L.A. and all that stuff.
And it's another team across town, the Oakland Soldiers, they get all the best players.
And when I got to high school, I became one of the best players in the Bay Area,
and they wanted me to come play on their team.
Whatchu think I said?
I think you said no.
“No.”
I stayed with the same AAU program that used to pick me up from the BART station
and give me rides home, and when I didn’t have no money, pay for my food.
Like, I was loyal to the people and the environment that I was in.
What was the best part about growing up in Oakland?
I went to college in Utah, and when I got there,
I was just ready for it because I had been around so much.
I had been around gangs and gun violence and drugs and numbers and money.
Everybody in college is more kinda naive, and I was like,
“Man, like, Oakland really is sped up.”
It’s fast out there, so you—you know that growing up in Oakland, you can survive anywhere.
I got robbed at gunpoint in the 12th grade.
But it is tough when you grow up, and there's people out there that be in the streets.
The reason that I was able to be successful and kinda deal with that environment and still move on and have good grades in high school and go to college
and stuff like that is because of the kind of family I come from.
I would come home from school, and I got 10 cousins at my grandmother's house.
We all do our homework. We at the park, we outside together, and then at some point, somebody get in trouble: “Why you got a C-minus?”
If I misuse a word, my Aunt Van is like, “What did that word mean?
Use it in a sentence, past and present.”
I had that type of family that, like, challenged me on so many different levels that it was like I really had no choice but to be some type of successful.
And I just think it’s not fair that a lot of the kids, majority of the kids in my neighborhood, just didn't have that.
What kind of parent do you want to be?
I wanna be a great parent, but I wanna be the kind of parent where everything that I'm suggesting or teaching my son, I can also represent that.
I don't wanna have to deal with him challenging me on stuff that I've taught him and then I'm not doing it myself.
So I wanna just—I wanna be a great example, especially with him being an African-American man.
[Rapping] Alumni to slums
I’m polished, ain’t no removin’ that
Straight up outta Oakland, where knowledge and all the shooters at
I'm hoopin’ and producin’
Now they sayin’ that dude can rap
I seen it all right before my eyes
Now salute a mac
Four.
How much joy do you get from making music and being an artist?
I get so much joy outta making music.
I think because through the music, I’m able to express myself, and I can do it in a creative way.
Music gives people, like, a vibe, gives ‘em a feeling
When I listen to music and I'm hearing people say the lyrics, I take myself to what they ??
Now you're genuinely a good rapper.
You really feel that way?
100 percent I feel that way. You know I would tell you if I didn't think you were a good rapper.
Appreciate that.
Most NBA players—I wouldn’t say most. A lot of NBA players that try to rap aren't great rappers.
Would you agree with that?
I would agree with that.
OK. What other NBA players do you feel— -There’s some good ones.
Yeah. Do you feel like they can also genuinely rap?
I think Iman Shumpert can rap.
Mhmm.
I think Lonzo Ball can rap.
Really?
I mean, it's not my type of rap.
I rap like the music that I listen to, like Nas and Common.
So I rap like that, storytelling and, like, basically telling my reality.
When they lose people is when they come out and they start rapping about them playing basketball.
That's the fastest way to get people to be like, “This dude corny.”
Yeah.
You know what I'm sayin’? When they start talking about how they dropped 30 on somebody or did like—don't talk about it.
Just leave that alone.
Why do people think that you can't rap and play basketball? Why is that?
I don’t know. It’s a good question.
We got a lot more time on our hands than people think.
Yeah.
I can't let you leave without asking you this.
Every Friday, you have rappers send in freestyles for #4BarFriday.
Yeah.
Yeah, I’mma see how this one flow, you know what I mean?
It’s been a grip.
But I pull up like I’m parkin’
I'm Tony Stark with the talkin’
Yeah.
So that’s Mark Twain in a Mark X
Doin’ Mach 5, goin’ over your head like a pop fly
That’s four.
If you wanna put everybody on the spot, I gotta put you on the spot.
You gotta give me four bars about this interview.
What—what?
It's only fair.
I told Taylor, “Take me there.”
She say, “Where?”
I say, “A special place.”
I dream about equality.
A nightmare we segregate
Represent the people
Pave a way for us to elevate
Love one and educate instead of stress and medicate
Four bars, much love.
You ready?
Wrappin’ up with Dame Lillard.
What’s good?
How’d it feel?
It felt great.
Yes.
Blazers’ very own.
Wink, wink.
[Laughing] Wink, wink.
I can’t wink, either