Moore: Blazers G Damian Lillard Talks Oakland, Mentors

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com interviews Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who discusses his childhood and his brotherly relationship with Baron Davis. Here's a snippet...

MM: Is it easier to take advice from the other guys when they grow up under the same conditions?

DL: It's a lot easier. Some people don't understand. You take someone who came from a stable household with both parents, a lot of family support, maybe a couple of brothers and sisters. You understand sharing. You understand what it's like to have people behind you. As opposed to someone who might have been raised by their mother, might have been a single child, and you don't know how to share, you don't have a brother to share with. You've only got one person.

And all you know is 'I know my mom got my back and everyone else is against us.' So they might come to the NBA and they don't know how to work with other people, and they don't know how to not be selfish.

MM: Has there been anyone outside of your teammates who have reached out and been supportive?

DL: Baron Davis.

MM: Oh yeah?

DL: Yeah, I've got a good relationship with Baron because he's from LA, he's an inner city guy. He reminded me of myself. When I watched him as a kid, he's a competitive guy, he could take over a game.

He reached out to me and said 'I respect what you've got going', but he wasn't afraid to tell me 'You can do this better.' That's how my brother is. He's proud of me, but he'll be the first one to come to me and say 'Yeah, but you need to do this better, You didn't do this great.' And that's how BD got at me.

We kept in touch, we spoke, and ever since then, he's been like a big brother to me.

The full interview is here.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter