There’s one thing missing from Damian Lillard’s glowing resume: an NBA championship. This is without a doubt his biggest motivation to turn his back on the franchise that he has been so loyal to over the past 11 years in favor of teaming up with Giannis Antetokounmpo with the Milwaukee Bucks.
One could argue that the term “championship or bust” applies to Dame more than anyone else in the league.
Damian Lillard on Milwaukee Bucks’ Championship Aspirations
Lillard isn’t shying away from the championship talk. In fact, he is well aware of the fact that this was part of the conversation from Day 1. This is also why the naysayers were quick to count out the Bucks the moment they started struggling at the start of the season.
“We saw it where it was like, oh, they gonna win a championship – we all knew it was going to be a process,” he told Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’re not going to win a championship in October or November or December, none of that. Then we start the season, we have a slow start. Now everybody’s like oh, they’re not that good, they’re struggling, oh, what’s going on? Then we slowly start to figure it out.
“Which is why you can’t get too caught up in the way of the season, because there’s going to be adversity, there’s going to be ups and downs. We’ve seen both sides already.”
Never Too High, Never Too Low
As Lillard said, even now that the Bucks have been rolling, he makes it a point not to get too caught up in the hype. Dame has been in this position in the past, and it did not exactly work out for him well.
At the end of the day, Lillard knows that what’s going to matter most is what happens in April onwards.
“I think we’ve seen both sides where they thought highly of us and then they was down on us and now we’re right back here in position to (win),” Lillard said. “But we’re still a work in progress. That doesn’t change. I think for us we just gotta know that it’s a marathon and you just want to make sure you’re playing the right kind of ball and that you reach that point you want to reach when it’s the right time. That’s why we get 82 games to figure it out and put it all together. You just want to win in the process and we’ve managed to do that.”
Despite winning seven out of their eight games in December, Lillard is adamant that the Bucks have yet to reach peak form. There’s still going to be more than a few bumps down the road. Dame and the rest of the squad will be ready, though.
