MILWAUKEE – First-year Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard is excited about spending Christmas Day playing against the New York Knicks. The only thing missing is not being able to have his three young children watching at Madison Square Garden and opening presents with them afterward.
Luckily for Lillard, he got his Christmas wish early by enjoying the holiday last week with his kids, putting ornaments on the Christmas tree and giving them their presents in his new home of Milwaukee.
“The main thing for me was just being present and just having that quality time with my kids,” Lillard told Andscape. “It’s Christmas, so I want them to see the lights. I want them to open up gifts. I want them to feel in the in the spirit of it. Decorate the Christmas tree, see the decorations and candy canes, whatever. All of those things, the Elf on the Shelf. But the most important thing for me is the time and make sure they feel my presence, feel the love and enjoy it while we have it, while I have them here.”
From 2012 to 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers were the only franchise that Lillard knew. The NBA 75th Anniversary Team selection earned seven All-Star appearances with the Trail Blazers and left as their career scoring leader. What was missing was not only a championship but playing on a team that regularly competed for one.
Lillard made a trade request in the offseason hoping to be dealt to the Miami Heat, which played in the 2023 NBA Finals. The Blazers dealt him on Sept. 27 instead, just days before training camp in a blockbuster three-team trade to the Bucks. The Bucks were NBA champions in 2021 and had a franchise icon of its own, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While Lillard’s dream of joining a title contender came true, the only regret he had was not being able to be around his children, Damian Jr. and twins, Kali and Kalii, and family members regularly. His children are in still Portland, Oregon, with their mother, Kay’La Lillard. Complicating matters, the Lillards are in the midst of a divorce.
Lillard is ecstatic about being with the Bucks but added that it is “hard living.”
“That’s probably been the biggest challenge, being away from my kids,” Lillard said. “Being away from everything that I’ve known. It’s a hurdle. It is an everyday battle. Any father or any mother would know that. When you wake up and you are able to be physically present with your kids, there is nothing else that you love more in the world.
“So being away from my kids, I wake up every day like, man, they are not seeing my face today physically. I can’t hug them. I can’t go pick my son up from school. I can’t pick up my twin daughter and son. It’s things that you just can’t do being this far away. And those are things that I love to do the most and I take a lot of pride in. When you get stripped of that, and for a great reason, there is a lot to be thankful for. But it’s just hard.”
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On the court so far, the Bucks acquisition of Lillard is a major success.
The Bucks currently have two of the NBA’s top-15 scorers, Antetokounmpo and Lillard. Lillard entered Friday averaging 26.2 points, 7.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds. After a slow 5-4 start under first-year coach Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee won 16 of its next 19 games and made it to the final four of the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament. The Bucks also entered Friday just a half game behind the Boston Celtics for the best record in the Eastern Conference.
“When he’s aggressive and he’s making shots, we’re a whole different team …,” Antetokounmpo said of Lillard. “Whenever he’s a threat out there, he makes the game easier for everybody. And you want him to be aggressive. You want him to keep on playing with high confidence and sometimes the shot is not going to fall. It’s OK, we believe in him.
“I’m happy he’s able to make some shots, get his confidence up. We have 50 more games ahead of us and we need him to be aggressive for all those games. Because he makes the game easier for every single person when he’s a threat.”
For an NBA player who has everything but a title, Lillard says winning a championship in Milwaukee is his main goal. As the season continues, he expects to be more comfortable on and off the court with the Bucks.
“Some things look cute on the outside. But when you get there, get your hands in the dirt and you have to do the work, it doesn’t always look like people on the outside want to see it look,” Lillard said. “We’ve had our bumps in the road, but [we’re] trending upwards.
“Individually, I’ve been able to do some things better. But I’m managing and I think I’ve been impactful and able to make a difference on our team. I’m going to continue to blossom more and more as I get comfortable and move more and more past some personal things. In the end, hopefully we have the opportunity that we came here to have.”
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Portland definitely became home for Lillard as his mother, brother, sister and some friends moved there from his hometown of Oakland, California, after he was drafted by the Blazers in 2012. Lillard is now living in Milwaukee with one of his cousins full time, and family members regularly visit as his mother and others did last week. He says he has not explored his new city much in his free time and doesn’t have a favorite restaurant or place to chill. Rather, his favorite thing to do in Milwaukee is FaceTime his children from home.
“My [eldest] son communicates really well. My daughter does,” Lillard said. “My kids are sharp, so I communicate with ’em directly. They probably get tired of me telling ’em I love ’em a hundred times a day on our phone calls and FaceTime. I make sure that they know, ‘I’m here for you. I love you. Call me anytime. How was your day? What did you do today that was fun?’ When they eat lunch. I’m sitting there on FaceTime eating with them. When they are eating dinner, when they are taking their baths before they go to bed, I just make sure I’m in constant communication to where they don’t feel an absence.
“I’m a family person and I pretty much built my life out in Portland where I was surrounded by that. My mom, my brother, my sister, my cousins, my kids, my friends even had moved to Portland. Everybody had built their lives around what I was doing in Portland. That made my life extremely full. Being away from that now, it’s a hurdle. It’s tough trying to live away from that and still continue to build on my basketball legacy; [it] has been an uphill battle for sure.”
Lillard says he views Christmas as “a season for giving and love.” During 12 NBA seasons, Lillard has played in only one Christmas game, scoring 20 against the Utah Jazz on Dec. 25, 2018. Lillard and the Bucks will be on the road this Christmas playing against the Knicks. He is looking forward to playing on the huge stage with the game televised nationally and having family members such as his father, mother, brother and sister in New York.
And after the game, a FaceTime session with his kids will certainly be on the horizon.
“It’s special. Christmas in New York,” Lillard said. “I grew up a big fan of the movie, Home Alone. Christmas in New York. Madison Square Garden. There is no bigger stage. There is no better opportunity to do what we love to do in the most famous building on a very famous day.
“I love playing on Christmas. Obviously, it’s a time for family. Being able to have my family there on Christmas Day in New York, playing in the Garden, you can’t beat that. I’m a provider for my family. A lot of what we do, and I take pride in being able to provide that, especially during the holidays. But obviously they want to see me do well. They want to see us win. It’s a big stage to be in Madison Square Garden, Christmas Day. It’s an experience that we haven’t had in these 12 years.”
