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Damian's Best Workout. Ever.

Byon Oct 27, 2015, 2:06am PDT12

As we're about to dive into the regular season, I wanted to share something that I think I got missed in all the Blazer news over the last few months. I know there's been a lot of navel gazing and angst. I know we're about to launch into some actual real live basketball up inheyah... but bear with me as I walk us back to late June and the moment that everything hit the fan for the Blazer universe. I'm referring of course to the Batum trade. That was the "shot heard round the world... except Portland." For the most part our fingers were jammed in our ears and we were allnah-nah-nah-nah-awoj-or-it-didn't-happen. I tell you what though. If you dig far enough into the details, you will find one person out of everyone who understood exactly what was about to happen and was utterly calm in the face of it.

Before I make my case though let's set the stage: Neil Olshey had recently promised us that the offseason would be "fun." At the time our definition of fun was arguing about Rondae Hollis-Jefferson vs. Delon Wright. This would be a ho-hum offseason. Teacup Ride type fun. Except... when did they put 5-point harnesses on the seats in the Teacup Ride? Wait, what was that lurch? Why are we leaning back so far?

No.... no no no noooOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AIEEEEEEEEE!


Clearly there was little calm among the rank and file, but you weren't going to find that in the Front Office either. Neil Olshey still had two weeks of deal making, a press firestorm and a family emergency to deal with. It certainly wasn't LaMarcus Aldridge, a man with a once-in-a-lifetime decision and a history of changeable opinions.

Now Damian Lillard on the other hand? Here's a guy for whom being a stone cold operator is central to his image. Six hours before the Batum trade was announced we would see this exchange:

According to the reporting, LaMarcus Aldridge was informed on the developing Batum trade. So he had some forewarning of what was going to go down. Damian was halfway around the world on his Addidas tour. It seems unlikely he'd throw the #RipCity hashtag if he knew what was coming. Almost six hours later, this would be Damian's first tweet on the Batum trade:

So... what was Damian doing in that intervening time? Well according to whatPhil Beckner told Jason Quick, he was mostly in the air between Paris and Xiamen, landing in paris at 8 a.m. Paris is eight hours ahead of the West Coast, so that means he got off the plane around midnight our time. Here's a Damian tweet from right around that same time:

According to that article in the Oregonian, Damian wasn't just thinking about the previous day's workout.

On one leg of the trip, they flew 10 hours from China to Paris. When they landed at 8 a.m., Beckner was frozen in disbelief as he retrieved his overhead baggage.

"I still get chills thinking about this,'' Beckner said. "I'm dead tired, reaching for my bags and Damian asks 'When are we working out?'''

On the way to the hotel, they made arrangements to secure a gym, 40 minutes away.

Spontaneously, after a ten hour flight that crossed seven time zones, Damian wants to hurry up and arrange a workout? What drove this? Let's look at the timing of this again:

  1. Damian tweets Nic @ 11am on 6/24 Pacific time. This is thirteen hours before he will arrive in Paris, or three hours before he boards his plane.
  2. Five hours and forty-five minutes later while Damian is in the air, twenty-two minutes after the Woj-bomb, he tweets about losing Nic.
  3. Immediately upon landing, Damian asks Coach Beckner to arrange a workout ASAP.

So how did that Paris workout go?

"We ate breakfast, got in a car and he had one of the best workouts I've ever seen,'' Beckner said. "And I told him, 'This is what makes you special, and what you can't lose: Your confidence will come from your preparation.'''

I propose to you dear BlazersEdge reader that as soon as Damian heard that Nic was traded, he knew that LaMarcus would not be coming back. He knew that the team would become his to lead and his first reaction was to face that reality head on and start preparing. It would be almost two weeks before most of us would reach that same understanding. While we were desperately trying to hang onto the past Damian was getting ready for his future. Our future.

Between then and now it seems like the majority of us have come around to embracing the new roster and where it will take us. Still, you'd be forgiven if you're not feeling as locked in as the man who wears the letter "O". In spite of all the hope and the promise we did lose some truly special people and players. Wins will be much harder to come by. So if you're stuck feeling like the next six months will be tedious and painful to watch, if you're still hesitant to give your heart back to the team, Damian has one last thing for you to consider:

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