For Damian Lillard, life is bigger than basketball and includes music, hometown

Damian Lillard could relate to Nikola Jokić when the NBA Finals MVP surprised basketball fans with his nonchalant attitude toward the Denver Nuggets winning their first championship.

"Basketball is basketball," Lillard told USA TODAY Sports, "we love it, but it can’t be everything to us. Our family will always be here. The ball stops bouncing and your blood line is always gonna be your blood line."

But the understanding only went so far.

"If I win a championship, I’ma live that moment," the seven-time All-Star and father of three laughed. "We work hard to not just make it to this league but to reach the mountaintop like that. I kinda feel like he was being sarcastic. I thought he was being funny ‘cause ain’t no way. Ain’t no way he was like ‘Oh I don’t want.’ Y’all just won it. I didn’t buy it."

Lillard, 32, is promoting his latest campaign with Modelo, the Summer Bucket Sweepstakes, where fans can participate in monthly challenges on social media to win a bucket of assorted prizes, including headphones and autographed sneakers.

This offseason might be a little more stressful than others due to the uncertainty of where he will play next season. The face of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise has been the subject of trade rumors, but he says he remains focused after the team missed the playoff for the second consecutive season.

"I just block out the noise. That’s it," he said. "… The fighting spirit."

Damian Lillard credits Oakland with creating fighter spirit

Lillard credits his hometown of Oakland, California, with developing his fighting spirit. He's proudly represented The Town throughout his 11-year basketball career and in his music, paying tribute to a local hero on "Dre Grant" and on celebrating Oakland on songs like "Home Team."

Lillard gave back to his community last season through a sneaker giveaway with Kicks Crew, a sneaker retail website that he invested in.

"They say it take a village, I'm an image of a potluck," he raps on "The Juice" and said that his family and community sharpened his competitive nature.

"Coming from Oakland, I think, is something that I represent because you just, it’s so many things that you gotta fight through. It’s a tough place. It’s no sheltering, there’s no being sheltered in Oakland," he said. "No matter how hard my parents coulda tried to protect me from things, I was gonna be around things. Whether it was at school, whether it was catching the bus to school, whether it was when I was at my basketball practices or football practices or whatever, I was exposed to a lot of things that just sharpened me and made me tough and showed me how I needed to operate in certain environments and deal with certain people.

"... It just shapes you into somebody that has a true fighting spirit and it’s not something that you just go in the gym and try to work on. It’s the environment that give you that where you don’t really have a choice. Then you go out into the world and everything else just seems like it’s another obstacle and I’m built to go through it."

Damian Lillard on Caleb Martin and J. Cole as an NBA scout

Another Finals star Lillard had his eye on that exhibited the same resilience was the Miami Heat's Caleb Martin, an undrafted player who Lillard thought should have won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award. The honor instead went to Jimmy Butler.

"They don’t go to the Finals without him in that series," he said of Martin, who averaged 19 points in the semifinal series, including 26 points and 10 rebounds in Game 7. "... He was just trying to find somewhere to land and he found that opportunity in Miami and obviously he’s made the most of it and then some."

Rap superstar J. Cole made a call to former NBA star-turned-Heat assistant coach Caron Butler to suggest that the team should add Martin to his roster. Lillard said Cole's role as an NBA scout doesn't surprise him.

"You know how those stories go, it’s always something. ‘I used to babysit him,’" he said. "But J. Cole definitely does that, though. ‘Cause he’s called me before about a player, ‘Aye, y’all should…’ I believe that a hundred percent. ... Those dudes in Carolina, he’s gonna call the people he know in the league about his dudes and try to get ‘em an opportunity. I can vouch for that."

Damian Lillard announces fifth album, reflects on musical journey

Lillard, who releases music under the name Dame D.O.L.L.A, said he is planning on releasing "Don D.O.L.L.A." next month. It will be his fifth album and first since 2021's "Different On Levels The Lord Allowed," which is the acronym of his stage name. He released his first album, "The Letter O," in 2016 as a tribute to Oakland with features from Jamie Foxx and Lil Wayne.

"When I listen to the early ones, I’m like man, I don’t like ‘em," he said. "You get so much better. In time, you start to sound different, you understand what you want it to sound like. You understand the direction of the music better. You get higher quality production. Things just get better and better as you continue to work at it and focus on it. So when I look back at the other ones, I’m like, man, I wanted to take these first couple off the streaming services."

But he said he keeps the music online "for the people that do love that work. ‘Cause everybody don’t feel that way about your stuff like you do. And also so people can hear the growth. You want people to hear the growth so they know that you’ve been serious about the craft, especially in music."

Full-time musicians of this generation have released a similar amount of music. Cole has released six albums. Nicki Minaj told fans on social media that she also will be dropping her fifth album this year. Kendrick Lamar has officially released four major label albums.

Letting the reality of a fifth album sink in, Lillard takes a moment to be impressed.

"To have my fifth is crazy," he said. "I’m like man, I’m really out here just dropping albums."

A fellow athlete-artist he appreciates is Flau'jae Johnson, who won the national championship with the LSU Tigers earlier this year and balances a music career as well.

"I see a clip come up of her rapping, I listen every time," Lillard said. "... To be performing and actually a real contributor to what they did and then to be as forward and as confident in her music regardless of people saying, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be doing this and that,’ or whatever. She’s boldly doing it and thriving at it, so I respect it a lot."

Johnson told USA TODAY Sports that she and Lillard have talked about working together. The respect is mutual.

"He really got bars, forreal, forreal," she said. "He's real conscious. I love it."

For Lillard, the consciousness comes from intentionality. The way he spends his offseason shows how his life is bigger than basketball.

"When I’m in season, I’m just focused on winning games, trying to perform, trying to do my job to the best of my ability," he said. "Then when the summer comes, it’s just like the things that I care about. Basketball is what I do, but it’s not completely who I am. I love boxing, I love doing things for the youth and going back to my neighborhood and spending time with my kids and making new music. ... I just feel like it’s an opportunity for you to do all the other things that you’re passionate about and that you care about that could touch somebody or could have some type of impact."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Damian Lillard speaks on offseason work, including music, hometown