Between basketball, sponsorships and his music, Damian Lillard has cause to spend a lot of time on the road. But even when he’s away, his mind and his heart are always at home.
Lillard’s love and support for the family and friends, the people who really make a “home,” are the focus of his latest track, aptly titled “Home Team.”
The song, which features Dreebo and was produced by Nonstop Da Hitman, focuses on the important Lillard places on helping his family and friends find success. And the video, co-directed by Lillard and his cousin Brookfield Deuce, takes that theme to another level, with scenes on a farm run by Lillard's friends and family, the training facility his brother owns and operates and the nail salon his fiancé owns. Images of those who have played an important role in his life, from childhood friends to those who work for his agent, Goodwin Sports Management, and adidas, aka his “home team,” are spliced throughout the video.
“‘Home Team’ is one of my favorite songs that I’ve written,” said Lillard Thursday afternoon after practice in Orlando. “It’s just about my family, just how that’s what I’m most invested in right now. It’s not creating the fortune for myself to have to take care of people, it’s holding my family accountable to figure out what it is they want to do, what type of career they want to have. What they want to do so I can sponsor that and try to help them move into a better direction of what they want to do. So the video is just kind of highlighting that, showing each individual that’s in my circle of friends and family and what they’re doing.
“They literally are my best friends from childhood or real family members, not just an entourage of people that’s around because I’m an NBA player or hanger-on type people. I feel like it’s important to show that because I think people see I got a lot of cousins and I got a lot of people with me and they look at it as an entourage, and it’s not that. I want to highlight the fact that they’re all college graduates and they all work for themselves.”
The song and video are dedicated to Lillard’s late cousin Brandon Johnson, who served as Lillard’s personal chef before passing away suddenly in May.