It is a dream come true to make it to the NBA for many players aspiring to play professional sports. However, that is only part of the challenge. They don’t know how to deal with fame, money, and other things that come with all the success. Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard opens up about the challenges he faced once he made it into the league and the mental health issues that came along with it.
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Damian Lillard recently appeared on DeMar DeRozan’s new show, Dinner With DeMar. While on the show, Lillard opened up about the mental health challenges and how his close friend opened up to him.
Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan talked about the challenges that they faced initially. Lillard mentioned how people have major expectations from them to make it big in the league, leading to them being caught up in their everyday schedule.
One of the issues Lillard emphasized was how so many people started depending on him and how he was never taught to deal with this kind of thing.
“I think we just get caught up in our day-to-day you know, show up to practice, do your workout, watch film. We get so caught up in that that we don’t realize the impact that our life and its entirety is having on us. And I think that’s something that I ignored for a long time. But I never knew, we never had no mental health conversations and depression and all those types of things so I just felt like, ‘Man, I gotta get through it’.”
Lillard then went on to talk about his best friend who started opening up to him. At first, Dame was a little taken aback since the conversation did not pertain to what his friend was talking about.
As his friend was getting his feelings off his chest, he asked Lillard who he spoke to when it came to things like this. And that is when the NBA star realized that he needed to talk to a mental health professional to address his feelings a little bit better.
Lillard also went on to mention how he was the first one from his family to have huge amounts of money and the importance of how to act and react came along with it. Because, as per Lillard, “If you don’t deal with it properly, man, you’ll spiral out of control.”
Damian Lillard shares his mini-meditation exercises
Damian Lillard has always taken the issue of mental health quite seriously. Being in the league for over a decade, Lillard has made more than enough money. But with that money also came a lot of doubters and naysayers.
In 2015, Lillard revealed how he has had a mental health coach since he was in middle school. And that might be a reason why fans never get to see Lillard lashing out on the court or in front of the media as well.
Lillard also went on to share how he would often take part in breathing exercises as a means of meditation while sitting on the bench during timeouts. And it is something that has helped him a lot over the years.
“I’m absolutely blank. Blanked out. I’m on the bench, I do my breathing techniques. I put myself into a space where I can just lock into that moment.”
Paying attention to his mental health has clearly paid off for Lillard. Despite being traded to a place where he did not want to go initially, Dame Time is still flourishing and is hoping to achieve his lifelong dream of winning an NBA championship before he retires.
