Damian Lillard's Formula Zero: New Camp, Same Message

On Lillard's new camp and his focus on the next generation

BEAVERTON, Ore.—Damian Lillard has spoken in public a few times this offseason, and whether he's talking about his Trail Blazers career or his various camps, he's placed a large focus on the impact he wants to have on the next generation of players.

Lillard's most recent media appearance came Friday as part of Formula Zero, a brand-new camp he and longtime trainer Phil Beckner are putting on at Beaverton's HOOP YMCA. Unlike his long-running kids' camp, this one features elite high-school players from all over the country and his focus in addition to on-court work is teaching them how to conduct themselves as professionals.

At one point in the roughly 20 minutes he addressed local reporters on Friday, Lillard made a passing comment that it's "a lot easier to make the NBA now" than it was 10 years ago, when he was drafted No. 6 overall out of Weber State.

That jumped out at me, and I asked him why he thought that.