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.

"First of all, the internet, social media," Lillard said. "If social media was the way it is now, even when I was in college, nobody would have been like, ‘Dame Lillard? Weber State?’ They would have already known. They would have known in high school.

"These kids from a young age, it’s like, ‘Oh, he’s 6’3 in eighth grade and he can shoot and he’s athletic.’ You’re already on the radar. But they almost get ushered right to the NBA, because for a lot of people, it becomes consensus. If everybody’s saying this about a player, it becomes consensus. They won’t go against the grain until it’s an obvious wrong pick and it’s like, ‘He wasn’t what we thought.’ Back when I was in college, you had to earn it. I was in the combine in my head thinking, ‘I might be in the second round. I might not get picked.’ I literally believed that.

"And there’s kids here at this camp, I guarantee you, you ask every kid on the bus, they think, ‘I’m going to the NBA.’ It’s no question in their minds of whether or not it’s going to happen because that’s the culture that it is now. They expect to be in the NBA. I’ve seen interviews from kids in high school where somebody’s asking them, ‘What team would you like to play for?’ ‘I want to go to a good situation, where the ball is in my hands.’ And it’s like, I would have never said that as a kid."

It would be easy for a cynical person to read this as a "Get off my lawn" rant from a superstar in his 30s. But that's never been Lillard. He said that on Friday because he was asked about it. But he's always backed it up with work, both in his own career and with camps like this—not to mention his track record of getting the best out of players like Jusuf Nurkic, whose careers could have gone either way when they got to Portland.

I couldn't help but be reminded of what Lillard said about Shaedon Sharpe, the Blazers' No. 7 overall pick, in an in-game interview on ESPN during Sharpe's short-lived Summer League debut in Las Vegas a month ago.

"He's super-talented, super-gifted," Lillard said of Sharpe. "But you've just gotta get out there and play. You've got to see it in live action and put him in the mix. When you're picked that high, you've just gotta have that pride about going out there and showing people why, and living up to being that high of a pick. I think everybody who's a top-10 pick goes out there saying, 'I'm a top-10 pick and I need to show these people.' I've been there. Now he's in that position, and we're looking forward to him coming out there and showing why."

The comments were controversial at the time, because a lot of people online read it as Lillard taking shots at the kid the Blazers drafted instead of trading the pick for someone closer to his own age. But it makes a lot more sense when read next to what he said Friday about the impact he wants to have on the kids at his camp.

It's not hard to picture Sharpe a couple of years ago, when he was in high school, as one of Lillard's Formula Zero campers. He was a five-star recruit to Kentucky and his draft stock was not hurt by his decision to sit out his freshman season, because he has that much physical ability. That's exactly what Lillard meant on Friday when he said he believes it's easier to make it to the NBA now. If he had gotten to Sharpe as a high-schooler, he would have told him to play in college instead of sitting out to protect his stock.

These kinds of lessons were the motivation for Lillard and Beckner to finally get Formula Zero off the ground. It was an idea they'd had for years, but as Lillard has gotten older, he's realized the importance of making a personal impact on the generation of players that came after him. It's no accident that among the counselors at the camp were two of his former assistant coaches with the Blazers, David Vanterpool and Kaleb Canales, and one of his favorite teammates from his younger years, Chris Kaman. (Anfernee Simons and Mikal Bridges were also in the building.)

"A lot of these kids, you look at them, they’re ranked, they’ve got all of these followers on Instagram, but I want to help them have the stuff that’s not just a talent, that’s not given to them," Lillard said Friday. "I’m not the most talented player. I’m 6’2, I don’t jump out of the gym. There’s a lot more talented and gifted players out there. But it would be hard for y’all to find someone who’s sharper and more disciplined than me mentally, and someone that’s tougher and sharper and better and more compassionate than me in their heart. That’s stuff that’s been put into me my whole whole life."

Lillard's comments on Friday, and what he's doing with this camp, also brought to mind something he said last month at the press conference announcing the two-year, $122 million extension he signed to keep him in Portland for the foreseeable future.

"Something that’s missing in our league is the character and the fight and the passion and pride about not just the name on the back, but the name on the front and how you impact the people you come in contact with," he said then. "And I’ve embraced that. Not pretended to embrace it, that’s really who I am. This just shows the power in that. There’s something there for being committed and having your heart in the right place. Hopefully it will have the impact going forward on players, seeing that it doesn’t have to be, the media says this, and you just get swayed into doing what everyone else is trying to convince you to do. Everyone doesn’t have to live with those decisions. I’m proud to be the person that jumps out, and this organization has shown that type of trust and faith in me. That’s what I hope will reach the guys that come behind me."

Taken together, all of this paints a consistent picture of where Lillard is at this stage of his career, and the impact he hopes to have going forward.