During an interview with NBA reporter Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard spoke about his relationship with forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Lillard said he and Antetokounmpo have a “good relationship.”
“We have a good relationship,” Lillard said. “We talk all the time. [Relationships] take time. You have to go through the process of having a relationship. David Vanterpool, he was our assistant in Portland for a long time. The same went for [Jusuf] Nurk [Nurkić], the same went for CJ [McCollum], it was progressive.”
Lillard and Antetokounmpo are averaging a combined 55.3 points on the season. The Bucks are in third place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are expected to compete for the 2024 NBA championship.
“We just kind of eventually grew into that and I think the same goes with [Giannis],” Lillard said. “But because we are stars and we have to be able to work together and we have to continue to get better at it, everybody’s like, ‘We want y’all to be best friends right now.’ But I think the truth of it is you’re not going to become my best friend in three weeks. It’s going to take some time. Because I want to know who you really are. And when I do something you don’t like, how are you going to respect me and respond to me? And when I’m struggling, how are you going to act? And when I’m blossoming? That’s what friends are, like when you struggling, I know what you really are and what you really capable of and I believe it. That’s how you really develop that type of stuff.”
Lillard wanted the Portland Trail Blazers to trade him to the Miami Heat last summer. However, the Blazers weren’t impressed by the Heat’s offer for Lillard, one of the best players in the NBA.
Once Lillard found out that the Blazers wouldn’t trade him to the Heat, he became open to the idea of going to the Bucks and playing with Antetokounmpo.
“And I just think we still in that process. But we do talk. We are cool,” Lillard said. “And we both want to make it work. And in this situation, I’m the new guy. I think if he came to Portland, he would be in the same process. I would be comfortable and I would know what’s going on and he would be the one trying to figure it out and it would be the same process.”
Lillard, who is looking to win his first NBA title, believes his relationship with Antetokounmpo can come together well enough for the Bucks to win at a high level.
“Absolutely,” Lillard said. “Because we’ve had moments of it. I think this year more than anything I’ve learned that people don’t watch games. They look at a box score, they look at the highlights or they look at what’s being said about games. But we’ve had moments where we’ve had great stretches of pick-and-rolls, great stretches of playing off of each other. It is just not enough. People want it all the time, every time, and we have to do it more. But we’ve had stretches and we’ve had moments of doing it. It’s just, that has to be more bread and butter than, ‘Oh, they just did it.’
“I’d be the first to tell you it’s been a challenging year, but the kind of person I am, when stuff like this start happening, I start thinking there’s a reward coming. That’s how I think because I do s— the right way. I don’t change. I don’t mistreat people. I don’t cheat my process. I still go to the gym at night. I do my stuff, my body, I do everything. I did think we’d be rolling a lot sooner than this. But I know we can get there.”
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