Near the end of his 30th birthday celebration Wednesday inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla., Damian Lillard stood before his Trail Blazers teammates and voiced his birthday wish.
“My only ask as a birthday gift,” Lillard told the room, “is let’s not fucking waste our time out here.”
blazers sing @Dame_Lillard happy birthday 🎂🎉🎉
he’s got 1 ask: pic.twitter.com/WdWThVaKdg
— NBA Bubble Life (@NBABubbleLife) July 16, 2020
Besides his ninth birthday, which was spent with an aunt in Arizona, it was the first time he didn’t celebrate with his immediate family, so in that regard, Lillard said his 30th was “weird.”
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His birthday wish, though? To those who have been with Lillard, and played alongside him, it was anything but weird.
“I thought it was typical Dame,” coach Terry Stotts said. “Having his eye on the task at hand.”
The rest of the NBA has come to know Lillard as the five-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA player who bombs in 3s from the logo and makes big shots in big games. But to those inside Portland, and who follow the Blazers, Lillard is so much more. He is a leader not only by example but also in inspiring those around him.
That leadership has been a trait since early in his career, when in his second season he interrupted Stotts’ postgame speech after a late-season loss in San Antonio, which at the time was the Blazers’ fourth in a row. As Stotts began to go over some of the positives of the loss, Lillard shot through the coach’s words.
“Hold on,” Lillard said.
And from there Lillard went on an impassioned speech about accountability, not accepting excuses for poor play, and not blaming coaches. It was so direct, so powerful that veterans like Dorell Wright, Mo Williams, Wesley Matthews and LaMarcus Aldridge all remarked later about the impact, and the timing of the speech being way beyond Lillard’s years.
As he has grown in stature around the league, so too has his reach within the organization. In 2015-16, the first season after the heralded core of Aldridge, Matthews, Batum and Robin Lopez departed, Lillard refused to accept the Blazers would be a lottery team, even though oddsmakers had placed the Blazers’ projected win total at 26. So after a preseason game in Los Angeles, he hushed the locker room and in his matter-of-fact, yet in-your-face manner, declared that the season would be “Us versus everybody.”
The Blazers went on to win 44 games and reach the second round of the playoffs.
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And last year, in the final minute of a deflating Game 5 loss in Denver in the second round that put Portland on the brink of elimination, Lillard walked up and down the bench telling his teammates that all they had to do was get back to Denver for Game 7. They did, and when they got there, they won to advance to the Western Conference finals.
So Wednesday, in a hotel ballroom with balloons and birthday cake, it wasn’t necessarily unique to hear Lillard stir the emotion in the room. Plus, he had delivered the “not waste our time” message to the media at the onset of the team’s trek to Orlando.
But he said he figured he would deliver it point-blank to the troops while he had their attention because he knew the odd nature of the NBA restart had a lot of built-in excuses: being rusty from not playing since the league was postponed in March. Not used to playing in July. Being uncomfortable being away from home.
“I wanted to share that message with the team because I think the easy thing to do would be to come here and, you know, make up an excuse,” Lillard said. “There’s a lot of ways out the back door. So I just wanted to make sure we understood this was a great opportunity for us to come out and make a push in the playoffs … so let’s not come out and take the easy way out and basically waste a month and a half of our time. Let’s make the most of it and do what our team is capable of, and that’s making a run.”
The Blazers (29-37) will begin the eight-game schedule in a tie for ninth place with New Orleans and Sacramento, 3 1/2 games behind Memphis for the eighth and final playoff spot. Portland’s opening game is July 31 against Memphis.
So far, Lillard, Stotts and other players have talked confidently about Portland’s chances, in large part because of the return of healed big men Jusuf Nurkic (broken leg) and Zach Collins (shoulder surgery). But in reality, much of the team’s confidence rests in knowing the Blazers have in Lillard an accomplished playoff performer as well as inspirational leader.
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“I wasn’t surprised by his message of not wasting our time, taking it seriously,” teammate CJ McCollum said. “I think everybody knows where he stands and where we stand as a team. I mean, (Lilllard’s message) was in fun, but serious.”
Lillard is rarely one to bring attention to himself or promote his leadership. Like his birthday speech Wednesday, which was broadcast by teammates over social media, the hype is generated by others. So Thursday, Lillard was understated in talking about his message, in part because the Blazers as a whole have been on task since arriving in Orlando on July 9.
“Honestly, I probably didn’t even have to say that, I just chose to,” Lillard said. “I wanted to make it plain … I guess say it out loud. Because the way we’ve practiced, and the energy of our team, that’s been the mentality: We’re here to get something done, not just show up and, you know, ‘All right, we showed up and played.’
“We’re actually here to be productive,” Lillard said. “How our team feels, and the way it looks to me, is that we are here for business.”
(Photo: Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images)
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