Above: Damian Lillard during the 2024 All-Star Game. (Photo by Alex Nahorniak-Svenski/NBAE via Getty Images)
NBA SUPERSTAR DAMIAN LILLARD IS ALMOST AS PASSIONATE ABOUT BOXING AS HE IS BASKETBALL
Every fight on TV was a big deal to young Damian Lillard.
At an early age, the future NBA star felt the nervous anticipation of Christmas Eve in the air before his favorite boxers were scheduled to fight. Clustered in a semicircle around the screen with family and friends at his parent’s home in Oakland, California, boxing seeped into his bloodstream.
It was the age of Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya and Pernell Whitaker, and the boxing contagion that gripped his family soon gripped him.
The 33-year-old, eight-time NBA All-Star, Olympic gold medalist and future basketball hall of famer has not let go since then. In fact, Lillard, the Milwaukee Bucks’ 6-foot-2, 195-pound point guard, now finds himself in a special place as one of the sport’s best advocates.
“… once you get boxing in the system, it’s hard to get it out.”
In a time when boxing must claw and scratch for any morsel of attention on the mainstream sports food chain, Lillard makes sure everyone knows he is an avid fan of the sport – and not just the superstars. His boxing knowledge is hardcore.
“That comes from watching as a kid with my family,” he said. “And as I got older, I kept up, watching amateur fighters, catching fights on YouTube and keeping track of things, like who was saying what about whom, and I began following who fighter’s trainers were and the stable of fighters each promoter had. I keep track of who boxing people are saying is the next great guy coming up, and I was hooked early on. It comes from watching Tyson, De La Hoya, Whitaker, guys like that growing up. Yeah, you can say once you get boxing in the system, it’s hard to get it out.” (laughs)
Lillard shakes hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern after being selected number six overall by the Portland Trail Blazers during the 2012 NBA Draft/ (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Lillard has had to fight for everything he achieved in basketball. He was a 5-foot-5 high school freshman guard, then transferred as a sophomore to St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, which produced former NBA star Jason Kidd. Lillard did not get any playing time there, either, so as a junior he found himself at his third school in three years – at Oakland High School, where he blossomed. He averaged 19.4 points a game his junior year and 22.4 points and 5.2 assists as a senior – yet none of the college basketball blue-blood schools showed him any attention.
He was a very underrated, two-star prospect coming out of Oakland High, so he wound up at mid-major Division I Weber State in Utah, even after receiving scholarship offers from larger, more prominent programs, including Wichita State, Saint Mary’s and San Diego State. He stayed with Weber State because that was the school that first offered him a scholarship.
He went on to be Freshman of the Year in the Big Sky Conference, then exploded on the national scene by averaging 19.9 points per game as a sophomore and leading the nation for most of his junior year in scoring, averaging 24.5 points a game, which included a career-best 41 points in a game against San Jose State.
Lillard puts a move on Steve Nash during a pre-season game in 2012, Lillard’s first year in the NBA. (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
Lillard, who graduated from Weber State with a degree in professional sales, was the highest-rated college point guard, bypassing his senior year for the 2012 NBA Draft, where he was selected sixth overall by the Portland Trail Blazers. He was named NBA Teammate of the Year in 2021 and in 12 NBA seasons. He has a career average of 25.2 points a game. This past February, he was awarded the NBA All-Star Game MVP for leading the East over the West in a history-making 211-186 victory with a game-high 39 points on 11-of-23 shooting from three-point range, including two from halfcourt.
He has an international fanbase and 3.3 million followers on X.
“As you learn to fight, you get more respect for the fighters, and I mean at every level.”
“I have pride in where I come from, and you don’t come from where I come from without fight in you,” Lillard said. “I have known David Benavidez and Jose Benavidez Sr. for years. I know Bill Haney very well. He knows where I come from. You do not come out of that and reach these levels if you are weak. It is an environment that forces you to have fight in you. My fight comes from that.”
That fight in Lillard is a big part of his passion for boxing.
“As a kid, I did a little boxing, and as I got older, getting more involved, you find out boxing is a lot more than just throwing punches. As you learn to fight, you get more respect for the fighters, and I mean at every level,” said Lillard, who was fresh off dropping 24 points on the Philadelphia 76ers in a late-February Bucks’ 119-98 victory when he spoke to The Ring. “I see how dangerous it is, and being in there with your hands up, constantly moving. It is a one-man show. You have to push through when you’re hurt, and you are in there by yourself. Boxing has no teammates that have your back.
“My respect for the sport comes from having an idea what these guys go through. That made me more interested in the sport. I love to see who is talking trash and who is backing it up, who is living up to everything they say. I just love the sport. My favorite fighter today is Bud Crawford. I go back with Bud, but my all-time favorite fighter is Andre Ward. That is not just for what he did in the ring, but for the kind of quality person that Andre is and how he carries himself. And he’s from Oakland. He’s my guy.”
Lillard is greeted by Sam Watson at the Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight in April 2023. (Photo by Mindy Small/Getty Images)
Lillard admitted he could see himself dabbling in boxing from the management side after his NBA career is over – he does not like how fighters are treated for the risk that they take. He also gets asked frequently about the possibility of doing boxing commentary in the future. In short, he knows what he’s talking about. He picked Teofimo Lopez Jr. to beat Vasiliy Lomachenko in October 2020. Lillard knew once Lomachenko felt Lopez’s power, it would change the course of the fight.
A few years ago, he spoke to his brother about getting into the ring for a single pro fight, but with a new contract amounting to $216.2 million over the next four seasons, including $63.2 million in the 2026-27 season, it was a lot to risk. He stays connected, though, by training in the offseason with Cem Eren, who works with David Benavidez, and he has introduced his son to boxing.
“Cem always tells me, ‘You’re not a basketball player who can fight; you’re a fighter who plays basketball,” Lillard said. “Cem has been around me for years. He’s seen me in the ring. He knows I can throw punches and how to move. He knows I’m a warrior at heart. I’m going to keep watching boxing, and I’m going to keep fighting for the sport and for the fighters. I think they need to be appreciated more than they are. As for me, I have done everything I set out to do in my career. The only thing that’s missing is an NBA title. It is the one thing I want before I’m finished.”
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who was inducted into the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame in 2023. He has contributed to Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
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