When Damian Lillard was presented for Milwaukee’s game against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, he received a lengthy standing ovation from an excited Portland audience.
Lillard, who spent 11 seasons with the Blazers and still owns a home in Portland, played his first game in the city since being traded to the Bucks this offseason.
The sellout crowd at the Moda Center greeted Lillard with shouts. He responded by praising the crowd and raising his hands in a heart shape, as his Bucks teammates danced around him.
The Blazers’ 119-116 surprise victory over the Bucks, however, dampened the celebrations.
Lillard remarked in a pre-game press conference that his homecoming seemed unreal.
“Even though I knew I was coming here as a visitor, once I got to my house and took my son to school this morning, it was almost as if you forgot this was a road game,” he told more than three dozen reporters.
Lillard said he spoke with former Blazers teammate CJ McCollum that morning, who spent nine seasons with the franchise before being moved to New Orleans in 2022.
“He called me and said, ‘Hey man, embrace it.'” It is going to be emotional. We put in our time and work. We had times, and it had been many years of giving everything we had, and we were appreciated. When he returned, he said, ‘It was that moment, I felt the respect for everything that we put into it,'” Lillard recalled.
Lillard, an eight-time All-Star, averaged 32.2 points for the Blazers last season. When he scored 71 points against the Houston Rockets last February, he became only the seventh player in NBA history to do it (the number has since risen to nine). He averaged 25.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.7 assists while with the Blazers.
However, Portland only won four playoff series throughout Lillard’s tenure, reaching the Western Conference Finals once. Last season, the team went 33-49, finishing well outside the playoffs for the second year in a row.
With Milwaukee, Lillard averaged 25.1 points and 6.8 assists. Last week, Milwaukee fired coach Adrian Griffin after only 43 games and hired veteran Doc Rivers to take over with the goal of winning another NBA championship.
Lillard stated that it has been fantastic to be a part of a team that has “tasted winning and wants to get back to that.”
“I’ve really enjoyed playing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. “I think playing with other top 75 players, two-time MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, championship Finals MVP, I’m just able to feel what a luxury it is to have a guy as dominant as he is on the court,” Lillard said. He did not rule out returning to the Blazers in the future.
A kid in the crowd hoisted a placard pointed toward Lillard that read, “Go get your ring, then come back home.”
“I think because of how I feel about Portland, how I feel about the organization here, my time that I spent here, in my mind I’ve always felt that’s how my career would end,” he went on to say. “Right now, I’m just in the space of like, this is where I’m at. I’m in Milwaukee. I want to compete, and our squad has the opportunity to do so for many years to come.”
