Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook have a lengthy historical past of on-court beef courting again to January 2018 and Dame not too long ago mirrored on a number of the moments he’s had with Russ over time.
Since his childhood within the league, Lillard has been a goal of Westbrook’s.
However Dame says his battles with fellow level guard Russ have been a number of the finest enjoyable he’s ever had on the basketball court docket.
“Actually, them was probably the most enjoyable with Russ. My first 5-6 years, he was the bully,” Lillard mentioned not too long ago on Membership 520 podcast . “They was on TV on a regular basis, Russ it didn’t matter if it was an enormous matchup, if someone was damage and he was enjoying in opposition to the backup – he didn’t care. He tried to do it to everyone.”
At first, Dame didn’t take Westbrook’s wrath too personally, however he began to understand that issues had been private when Russ would up his recreation in opposition to him throughout his OKC days.
“I simply bear in mind once I was like a rookie or second yr, he used to attempt to give me 50 each time,” Lillard mentioned. “He can be taking pictures on me a lot that KD can be getting mad, like, “Move the ball!’ He’s taking pictures each time. As soon as I noticed it was like that, that’s once I began taking it private. I do know he all the time on go in opposition to everyone, however he actually attempt to come get me. That was when it grew to become private.”
The Blazers did a rebuild round Lillard and that’s when Dame says issues actually began to warmth up.
“I begin going again after which I begin having the ball extra as soon as we did our rebuild,” Lillard mentioned. “He observed that I used to be having it extra, so I used to be being extra aggressive again at him. That’s when it become speaking… Each recreation, it was computerized. I got here to the world understanding it’s on tonight, one thing taking place.”
Regardless of all their previous run in’s, Lillard has no beef with Westbrook as soon as they step off the court docket.
“He a cool dude, Russ is cool,” Lillard mentioned. “Off the court docket, we cool. However on the court docket, he took that method, and ain’t no one punking me, I don’t care who you is.”
