Damian Lillard is currently performing at a historic performance. In the past two games, he has scored 51 and then 61 points in back-to-back Portland Trail Blazers wins. After the 51-point explosion against the Philadelphia 76ers, USA Today’s Mark Medina wrote an insightful article on the story-behind-the-story of Lillard’s performance.
What Medina discovered gives all leaders a peak into what is required to operate at maximum efficiency. The following are 12 Keys To Elite Performance I gleaned from Medina’s article and and Damian Lillard.
- Elite Performers Are Never Satisfied. They Still Feel They Have Something To Prove – Prior to Lillard’s scoring outburst, the Blazers experienced a heartbreaking loss the previous game to the Los Angeles Clippers. What made the loss so difficult was Lillard missed a pair of foul shots with 18.7 seconds left trailing by one. He then missed a potential game-tying 3-point attempt with 9.5 seconds remaining. Afterwards, the Clippers’ Paul George and Patrick Beverly insulted Lillard both on the court and in social media.
- Elite Performers Have A Deep Sense Of Desperation – After the loss to the Clippers, the Blazers were a half-game behind the Memphis Grizzlies for eighth place in the Western Conference and only a half-game ahead of the San Antonio Spurs.
- Elite Performers Surround Themselves With People Who Bring Out The Best In Them – Prior to his 51-point game against the 76ers, Lillard spent time communicating with his fiancé and speaking with teammate Carmelo Anthony. Rather than cheering him up, they provided proper critical analysis of his game.
- Elite Performers Have Uncommon Determination – After getting the appropriate feedback, Lillard was determined to immediately correct the situation in the next game against the 76ers.
- Elite Performers Are Elite Mentally – Lillard says, “I enjoy those games mentally… I like to take advantage because I know I’m going to be there the whole time physically and mentally.”
- Elite Performers Execute At An Elite Level – Teammate Jursif Nurkic said, “He’s just taking bad shots. But luckily for us, he’s making most of them.”
- Elite Performers Have Elite Focus – Anthony added,”This was expected of him to approach the game the way he approached it today. That’s just a testament of how great of a player he is and how great of a person he is, but how strong his mindset is at the end of the day. So it’s an honor playing alongside him and being able to be out there in the dogfight and pulling games out like this knowing how focused and locked in he is.”
- Elite Performers Are Willing To Take Risks – Lillard said, “Every time we came to the end of the game, I found myself with the thrill of ‘Can we lose or can we win?’ I love that ride. I’m willing to risk it all. If we lose, I can deal with it coming up short like yesterday. When I win, I’m like, ‘Let’s do it again.’ It’s fun.”
- Elite Performers Have A Proper View Of Failure – Lillard said of the loss to the Clippers, “I didn’t step up there and miss because I was worried; I just missed.”
- Elite Performers Bounce Back Quickly From Failure – Lillard added, “I wasn’t thinking about it. I knew I had a chance to come back on the court today. So I moved on from it faster than I would’ve if it wasn’t a back-to-back.”
- Elite Performers Embrace And Press In To Pressure – Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said, “When the pressure is on, I think he approaches with a determination that is unparalleled.”
- Elite Performers Finish Well – Lillard scored 14 of the Blazers’ final 21 points.
What is one thing you learned from Damian Lillard about elite performance.
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