![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_8660-1024x840.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nPORTLAND, Ore. \u2013 Within the Trail Blazers, franchise star Damian Lillard has a special name for rookie Caleb Love.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk him what I always call him,\u201d Lillard says. \u201cAsk him \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Lillard first used the nickname in November at Golden State, when Love hit six 3-pointers on the way to 26 points during the Blazers\u2019 127-123 win.<\/p>\n
Top-10 pick! Lillard trumpeted. Top-10 pick!<\/p>\n
\u201cTop-10 pick \u2026 Just hearing that from him made me so excited \u2026 like, he doesn\u2019t even know,\u201d Love said. \u201cI\u2019m still a little kid when it comes to him. I still look up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a backstory to Lillard\u2019s nickname, a story with roots that go deeper than Love\u2019s outburst at Golden State and beyond his January splash onto the NBA\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n
Last summer, Love reserved a private room at a Tucson, Ariz. restaurant, ready to celebrate, ready to soak in an accomplishment of a lifetime: getting drafted into the NBA. A big-screen television stood in the front of the room, so his family, friends, and University of Arizona teammates and coaches could watch the moment.<\/p>\n
The first day of the draft, NBA teams selected 30 players. Love was not one of them.<\/p>\n
The second day, his family, friends and team came back to the restaurant. Same room. Same television. Same result. There were 29 more picks. Love was not one of them.<\/p>\n
He wanted to cry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t shed no tears, not right then and there,\u201d Love said. \u201cBut I did later, when I got home. I wasn\u2019t going to break down in front of everyone because they came for me, and I didn\u2019t want them to see me like that. So, I kind of kept my cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described it as feeling devastated. After all, there was a time when being undrafted was unimaginable.<\/p>\n
He was among the best of the best coming out of high school \u2026 McDonald\u2019s All-American \u2026 Nike Hoop Summit \u2026 Jordan Brand Classic \u2026 Gatorade Player of the Year in Missouri \u2026ranked the second-best point guard in America \u2026 a full scholarship to prestigious North Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou name it, I had the accolades,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n
But soon, he would learn that the moves he made in high school weren\u2019t translating to college. He was no longer the quickest. The most explosive. The most skilled.<\/p>\n
Amid his struggles to find his footing and place within the college landscape, Love in 2022 received an invitation to attend the inaugural Formula Zero basketball camp, put on by Lillard.<\/p>\n
The invitation was a thrill for Love because Lillard was his favorite player. They were similar in build. They had similar shot mechanics. And Love admired how Lillard played for a small school (Weber State) and fought through a broken foot in college to become the sixth overall pick and NBA Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just loved his story,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n
So, between his sophomore and junior year of college, Love accepted the invitation \u2014 sent to 15 college players \u2014 and in the summer of 2022 attended the four-day camp in Portland.<\/p>\n
At the time, Lillard was 10 years into his NBA career and had become too familiar with a cautionary tale of the NBA: Players who were talented enough to be in the league, but were out of the league because they didn\u2019t have professional habits. Lillard wanted to share the \u201cformula\u201d that helped establish the foundation for his record-setting career: Character, hard work and accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is designed to be a basketball camp, but it\u2019s also like a mentorship program,\u201d Lillard said.<\/p>\n
Throughout that 2022 camp, there were several players who would later make the NBA: Keyonte George (Utah) and Marcus Sasser (Detroit) among them. But Lillard kept noticing the kid from North Carolina, Love.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had some tough days, where (instructors) got on his ass, but he just kept figuring it out,\u201d Lillard said.<\/p>\n
Then came a moment that was captured in a photo Lillard still keeps. The picture shows Lillard and Love having a one-on-one conversation in the gym bleachers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, he pulled me to the side, and was like, \u2018Can I ask you some questions?\u2019\u201d Lillard said.<\/p>\n
For more than an hour, Love picked Lillard\u2019s brain. He wanted to know how to make it to the NBA. What he should work on. How to handle teammates. How to know if he was doing well. How to know if he was being selfish.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe asked me all the questions that kids don\u2019t really ask, you know?\u201d Lillard said. \u201cI could tell he was really trying to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
They exchanged phone numbers, and a friendship and mentorship had begun.<\/p>\n
Love left the 2022 Formula Zero camp with more than Lillard\u2019s phone number. He left with the MVP trophy, which usually stands for Most Valuable Player.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe changed it: we said it\u2019s not only Most Valuable Player; it\u2019s the Most Valuable Person,\u201d said Phil Beckner, Lillard\u2019s trainer who also runs the camp. \u201cWe wanted it to be the person who will carry on the example of the formula: Character, hard work, accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love embodied that spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike a lot of those highly-rated kids, Caleb had two things: he had a humility to take coaching, and he had hunger to work harder,\u201d said Beckner.<\/p>\n
But this wasn\u2019t a storybook, happy ending. Love\u2019s MVP at the camp didn\u2019t immediately translate. The perspective he gleaned from Lillard, and the work ethic he learned from Beckner, didn\u2019t produce fruit his third season at North Carolina. He shot a ghastly 29.9 percent from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
He decided to transfer to Arizona, and one summer after impressing at the Formula Zero camp, Love crawled into a shell. He didn\u2019t communicate with trainers. He didn\u2019t point fingers, and he didn\u2019t make excuses. He instead looked at himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to look in the mirror and take a step back, you know?\u201d Love said. \u201cI was like, this is not the end-all, be-all for me. I\u2019m not going to be one of those could\u2019ve-should\u2019ve-would\u2019ve guys who peaked in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beckner, who had spent summers training Love since his freshman year at North Carolina, was worried by the lack of communication. He wondered if he upset Love with his hard coaching. Eventually, Beckner learned that Love was simply embracing one of Beckner\u2019s signature phrases.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made a choice to be an overcomer and not a victim,\u201d Beckner said. \u201cHe chose that summer to run to hard things, to run to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was that truth?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth was I wasn\u2019t as good as I thought,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n
His mentor, Lillard, was pleased to realize his understudy had reached that conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll young players need to realize that, but most of them don\u2019t,\u201d Lillard said. \u201cThere are certain things that go into dudes being able to do this for 82 games, year-after-year-after-year, when pressure is on you, and there is criticism and all that. And it\u2019s all the things we talk about at that camp \u2026 and he was about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love had the knowledge. He just needed to implement it into his everyday life. He began to do the little things Lillard had told him: stretching before workouts, getting treatment on your body, strict diet, and identifying a thought process which helps with mental toughness.<\/p>\n
Lillard\u2019s own motto: Everything going on around the outside of you is making the inside of you weaker.<\/p>\n
In other words, your strength is what is inside you: your heart and your mind.<\/p>\n
As a symbol of his re-dedication, and new outlook, Love went to his barber and shaved his head while preparing for his first season at Arizona..<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted a fresh start,\u201d Love said.<\/p>\n
Love responded with a stellar season at Arizona. He was Pac-12 player of the year and named an All-American. His fifth and final season was solid (17.2 points, 34 percent on 3\u2019s), enough so that Love believed he would be drafted.<\/p>\n
When he wasn\u2019t, he retreated to his room and cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough, man. Like, everybody was there and it\u2019s getting to like pick 45, and I\u2019m just looking around \u2026 my parents aren\u2019t really saying anything \u2026 it was real quiet. And once that last pick got called, and I obviously hadn\u2019t been picked it was like \u2026 WOW.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was luck, or perhaps it was meant to be, but an NBA team did come calling that night. It was the team of his idol, the team of his mentor, Lillard.<\/p>\n
The Trail Blazers offered him a two-way contract, a tool NBA teams use to develop players by splitting their time between the G League and the parent team. Two-way players make roughly half of the NBA rookie minimum \u2014 around $550,000 \u2014 and they are limited to 50 games on the active NBA roster, unless the team converts them to a standard NBA contract.<\/p>\n
Lillard said he wasn\u2019t consulted about Love, but he said he had an immediate thought when he heard the Blazers had signed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to make the team,\u201d Lillard said .\u201dThat\u2019s the first thing I thought: He is going to make our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2245765574-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMe and Dame are getting closer and closer every day,\u201d Love said. \u201cHe\u2019s been such a help for me and such a shoulder to lean on.\u201d (Jared Lennon\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Love not only made the team, but he has become a key member. With a rash of injuries to guards, interim coach Tiago Splitter threw Love into the fire as soon as the season\u2019s fourth game. He has played in every game but seven.<\/p>\n
It turns out that November game against Golden State, when Love had 26 points which triggered Lillard to call him Top-10 pick wasn\u2019t a one-off. In 12 games in January, Love is averaging 15.8 points, 3.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds while making 37.8 percent of his 3-pointers. He leads all two-way players in scoring (11.3 points per game), and among all rookies, he is eighth in scoring and has made the fourth most 3-pointers (81).<\/p>\n
\u201cClosing games like a vet\u201d<\/p>\n
Relive Caleb Love\u2019s clutch performance in the Blazers\u2019 tough win over the Dallas Mavericks last night. pic.twitter.com\/cXNev1MBir<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) December 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s really stepped up,\u201d Splitter said. \u201cBut what I\u2019m most impressed with is the effort he has put in defensively. He doesn\u2019t have the biggest wingspan or jump the highest, but he always puts in the effort.\u201d<\/p>\n Love has been active for 37 games (one start), meaning he has until Feb. 22 (13 games) before the Blazers need to make a decision whether to convert him to an NBA contract or to relegate him to the G League. The Blazers don\u2019t have an open roster spot, but the Feb. 5 trade deadline is a chance to create roster flexibility to open a full-time spot for Love and\/or the Blazers\u2019 other two-way breakout player Sidy Cissoko.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trying to make the most of my opportunity,\u201d Love said. \u201cUntil I get where I want to get \u2014 having my contract converted \u2014 I don\u2019t want to get ahead of myself. But if I do get converted, it will definitely be a milestone that I\u2019m going to be proud of, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n He says he feels like he is free, like he is back in high school, playing with the joy of a youngster. He balances that joy with the sting of that June day, sitting silent in a restaurant while other names were called. And then, he contrasts that with the thrill of having his idol and mentor gassing him up.<\/p>\n \u201cI keep telling him: The draft happened already, but today you are a Top-10 pick,\u201d Lillard said. \u201cYep \u2026 Top-10 pick. That\u2019s Caleb.\u201d<\/p>\n Lillard\u2019s mentorship, however, is not finished. Yes, Love has been playing like a Top-10 pick, but he still needs reminders that making the league isn\u2019t enough. He wants to stay.<\/p>\n Caleb Love = problem\ud83d\udc40 pic.twitter.com\/IrrtlcrGjJ<\/a><\/p>\n