Damian Lillard has always been an avid fan of boxing. The sport is a great way to both learn to defend yourself while also acting as a great form of cardio. He cemented himself as solid boxer over the years through social media to the point where he was asked to star alongside Ryan Garcia in a boxing commercial for Gatorade.
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Garcia most recently had a blockbuster boxing match with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis where a body shot from ‘Tank’ would cause him to submit to a TKO in the 7th round. Despite this, he’s one of the biggest names in boxing as of 2023 following his catchweight division bout.
With all the hoopla surrounding celebrity boxing matches over the past half decade, there was speculation over whether or not Dame would ever lace up the gloves for a few rounds. He has stated that it’s unlikely but you never know. The financial incentive isn’t really there given that he’s set to earn $49 million by the end of the 2026-27 season.
Damian Lillard on sparring with Ryan Garcia
Damian Lillard, during a commercial for Gatorade’s newest drink, Gatorlyte, trained and subsequently sparred with Ryan Garcia. He would also promote his Dame 8s during the advertisement and he even revealed that Adidas made special Dame 8 variants for boxing for him.
During an interview, Lillard was asked about this sparring session with Ryan. He refused to comment on who won and chose to go down a more diplomatic route, claiming neither of them beat the other during the friendly training session.
“It was a lot of feints, a lot of jabs missed but we moved around a little bit. I didn’t beat him and he’s didn’t beat me,” said the 7x All-Star to GQ Sports.
Damian Lillard hinted towards wanting to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo
In this same interview with GQ Sports around the 4:11 minute mark, Damian Lillard was asked which player he would like to team up with to win a championship. He revealed that his first choice would be none other than Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Most recently, Dame took to Twitter to retweet an edited picture of Giannis in a Portland Trailblazers uniform following the Milwaukee Bucks’ Game 5 collapse against the Miami Heat. It’s quite obvious that the Oakland native has his eyes set on finding a way to combine the ‘Greek Freak’s’ talents with his own.
