{"id":160858,"date":"2025-09-22T10:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/160858\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:55:09","slug":"damian-lillard-addresses-blazers-fans-on-video-at-rip-city-reunion-event-im-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/160858\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard Addresses Blazers Fans on Video at Rip City Reunion Event, &#8216;I&#8217;m Home&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Damian Lillard returned to the Portland Trail Blazers this offseason and told fans on Sunday at a welcome rally that it didn&#8217;t really register fully for him until he realized he didn&#8217;t need to leave his <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/45899364\/next-damian-lillard-nba-future-portland-trail-blazer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">home in Portland<\/a> to go elsewhere this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;A week ago, that would be about the time I would usually have to pick up and leave,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And I was like, &#8216;Man, I don&#8217;t have anywhere to go. I&#8217;m home.&#8217; That was when it really clicked.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Lillard, 35, is a Blazers legend, spending his first 11 seasons with the team. All he did in that time was earn nine All-Star berths and lead the team to the playoffs eight times, averaging 25.2 points and 6.7 assists in his time with the organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">His second go-around will be undoubtedly different. Lillard is no longer in his prime and likely will miss the entire 2025-26 season as he recovers from a torn Achilles. When he returns, he&#8217;ll likely be as much a mentor to the team&#8217;s young core as he&#8217;ll be a starring man. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">But he&#8217;s back in Portland, where it felt like he always belonged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard returned to the Portland Trail Blazers this offseason and told fans on Sunday at a welcome&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-160858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}