“Stone Cold” Steve Austin was one of a kind, and no one knows that better than Damian Lillard. Dame Time is currently recovering from a ruptured Achilles, and with not much to do outside, he’s been spending his hours watching clips of Austin on social media. He went on to call the WWE Hall of Famer the GOAT after watching a particular clip online.
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The clip shows an old episode of WWE SmackDown from the early 2000s. A brawl was underway in the ring between several wrestling legends like the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian, X-Pac, and others. But Austin wasn’t going to let that chaos last for long.
Cue Stone Cold’s iconic glass-shattering entrance. The Texas Rattlesnake stormed in with a steel chair, cleared the ring, and handed out a few of his devastating Stone Cold Stunners. It was peak Austin, a moment that captured just how popular he was back then.
Dame re-shared this amazing video on his Instagram Stories and weighed in with some of his own commentary. “The GOAT lmaooooooo,” wrote the nine-time All-Star.
Dame on IG pic.twitter.com/V3VkCx2AwA
— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) August 7, 2025
Just like in NBA circles, pro wrestling has plenty of candidates for the GOAT title, especially if you look beyond the WWE bubble and explore places like Japan, Mexico, and Canada. But Stone Cold definitely deserves to be in that conversation, at least on wrestling’s Mount Rushmore.
Between merch sales, drawing power, and unforgettable moments, Steve Austin became the biggest cultural force in wrestling since Hulkamania in the 1980s. Wrestling continues to evolve to this day, but it’s hard not to compare today’s greatness with the phenomenon that was Stone Cold. So, it was cool to see Dame acknowledge this.
It’s not like Lillard is a casual fan either. The 35-year-old basketball star dressed up like Austin back in 2018, and carried a Smoking Skull world heavyweight championship title with him to put the cosplay into full effect.
Dame even did an interview about Austin back in 2020. “Nobody could tell him nothing, nobody could punk him. He was the man! He was just the man. I felt like even when everybody loved The Rock, I still was like, he may be bigger than Stone Cold, but he’s not quite Stone Cold,” said Lillard to NBA.com.
That wasn’t all. Lillard referred to Austin as “HIM.” Why? Because he saw himself in the wrestling icon. “I see myself in Stone Cold in that he was unapologetically him. And it was like, if these are the rules and this is what I’m supposed to be doing, this is how I feel, and this is what I’m gonna do. If that’s a problem, then oh well, that’s how I feel about stuff.”
Stone Cold was the ultimate bad boy. He told his boss to kiss his ass, he “stunned” his boss, and he drank beer on the clock. The blue-collar hero who connected with every demographic on every level. That kind of attitude, inspiring Dame, makes a ton of sense. He, too, is a bad boy. And now that he’s back in Portland, he’ll be looking to finish his story and drop a stunner on NBA opponents once again. Except his stunner is a 35-foot three-ball.
