The view for the NBA’s Damian Lillard on stage at JBL Fest, 15 minutes after he schooled the author on raising young athletes. Photo: SLAM
Las Vegas is honestly my favorite place on the planet that doesn’t have waves (yet). Everything about it is ostentatious, garish, gaudy, extravagant – all the things a surfer is supposed to claim they run away from by splashing around in the ocean. I don’t care. I hope someday Kelly Slater buys the Mirage or the Monte Carlo or some other Center Strip resort that’s past its prime and plops a wave pool right down in its backyard. Massive pool parties and cocktails fused with people getting barreled in the background will be stimulation overload for yours truly; my favorite things finally rolled into one.
For now, though, I’ll enjoy the triple-digit summer days and blaring music for what they are. Because while many preach of surfing as their escape, Las Vegas is my actual escape from obsessing over swell windows and when and how to fit a session into my daily grind in Los Angeles. It’s a 36-hour town. Get in, let loose, and get out before you start to feel like a walking sin. This particular adventure, though, I’m spending nearly four days here. JBL Audio has invited me to their celebration in Sin City known as JBL Fest, a three-day invite-only music festival with all those Vegas frills: a VIP party next to the Bellagio Fountains with Quincy Jones (which was awesome), a concert at Hard Rock Hotel’s fabled “The Joint” (also really awesome), and a full throw down of a pool party (eesh, pool parties are my not-so-guilty pleasure). Zero waves–which still has me cranking the creative wheels on just how this party in the desert is going to give me much to share with a readership focused on the ocean and outdoors. “Maybe they’re going to drop some waterproof Bluetooth headphones,” I think. After all, it’s only a matter of time before people are trying to wear those in the lineup anyway.
Soaking in the iconic Bellagio Fountains with a unique view from inside the hotel. Photo: JBL
But following the awesome soiree with Quincy Jones one evening and before I get a chance to indulge in those pool parties the next, I do get an invitation to meet one of the festival’s ambassadors, Damian Lillard. Lillard is a 2-time NBA All-Star, a former first round draft pick, one of the best point guards in basketball, and recently, a guy starting a budding music career. He’s a renaissance man and also a genuinely good person. You can tell that in the moment he shakes your hand and looks you directly in the eye, something I can attest plenty of professional athletes and millionaire celebrities struggle to do. Now, I’m always intrigued by people who can find massive success in any walk of life, even if their interests aren’t my own. So the fact that I’m an editor of a surf and outdoors publication and this is a guy whose livelihood has nothing to do with either doesn’t cheapen our conversation. He talks about his upbringing and the things his parents taught him that led to what he’s accomplished as an athlete today. He talks about building character and integrity, not because he was explicitly told to, but because he had parents who just simply valued and exercised those things themselves. And while I’m hearing all this I can’t help but think of the “surf dad” and their kids who hope to one day make a living out of riding waves. One grom/dad duo in particular that sticks out is Kaiser Auberlen and his dad, Geoff. Kai, a 12-year old from Hawaii, spends a good chunk of time traveling the world with his father and picking up a few life lessons here and there, all while getting the best waves of his young life. “My number one rule is you’re only a kid for 20 years of your life,” Geoff says. “Be a kid as long as you can. Just enjoy your childhood, because it goes by fast.”
In conversations Geoff and I have had in past months about Kai’s preference for hunting down great waves instead of focusing on competing (Kai rips, btw), there are an oddly high number of similarities to the same conversation I’m now having with a 2-time NBA All-Star. So in the 15 minutes, we chat one on one before Lillard steps onto a Las Vegas stage as basketball’s most recent “athlete/rapper” crossover, he hands me three nuggets of wisdom that apply to every young athlete today, no matter the sport.
“The love HAS to come naturally.”
This one is probably the best reminder for all the overzealous surf dads and coaches out there. “It’s something you learn,” Lillard says. “I don’t think you tell a kid ‘you need to be training.’ You don’t want to force all that stuff onto a kid. They gotta naturally develop a love for something.”
It’s a sentiment we’ve heard plenty – whether we have kids or not – about letting a young athlete find his or her own way rather than burning them out. It’s also a valid life lesson that applies to just about anything once you start collecting paychecks or awards for it. But Damian’s perspective digs a little deeper and actually has little to do with the “burnt out” factor. As he tells the story, his responsibilities as an athlete didn’t come until he started wanting them. When he excelled, his coaches naturally started holding him accountable to more and more, pushing him a little further along the way. He was ready to handle the new pressures partly because they weren’t forced on him, but also because his childhood and early teen years were spent at home learning “the little things.” That was invaluable to him because…
“The little things will be your foundation.”
To Lillard, stressing the intangibles is far more important than anything else when it comes to working with young athletes. Taking out the trash, cleaning his room, and doing well in school took priority over being a basketball star. “Because if they skip that,” he says, “they’ll turn 16 and the coach tries to tell them something – all of the sudden they’re talking back, they’re late to practice, and the list goes on.”
“Having character, being respectful, being humble, being coachable, remembering somebody’s name – those are the things you have to be taught when you’re younger. They’re your foundation and that’s the difference,” he stresses.
It’s right about here that I realize I’m having the “keys to success” conversation with yet another athlete, but he’s rarely talking about anything that’s happened while competing. It’s mostly a medley of lessons he learned at home. But there is one particular story in the game itself that sticks with him…
“Don’t be a 50/50 guy.”
Lillard says he worked hard in high school but he developed a habit of taking a day off here and there. The first day off would turn into a second, and then another, and so on. He carried that habit with him into college and by his sophomore year, a coach felt it was time to tag him with a title he wouldn’t like. “One day he called me a 50/50 guy,” he remembers. “‘Did you take an ice bath? Did you eat breakfast? What time did you go to sleep? How many shots did you make? One day you’ll do it and then the next you won’t. You’ll have three good days here and then for two days you’ll be bad.”
As a ballplayer, consistency was key for high performance. And as a young man off the court, integrity was the name of the game growing up. Taking out the trash and handling schoolwork were more important than sports – the same mindset in the Lillard household in Oakland as the Auberlen household in Hawaii. Giving 50 percent to anything clearly isn’t what made Damian Lillard one of America’s most popular mainstream athletes. He decided then to simply be “an everyday guy.” Now, he’s an accomplished athlete and musician. All in all, it’s a pretty fair testament to the idea that how you do one thing is how you do everything.
