Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard\u2019s return to the franchise has been cause for celebration across Rip City this week, particularly at the Beaverton Hoop YMCA. That\u2019s where the nine-time NBA All-Star is currently hosting his annual Damian Lillard Basketball Camp for over 380 boys and girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of them, as soon as I walked in yesterday, they all walked up and were like, \u2018Man, you\u2019re back! You\u2019re back!\u2019\u201d Lillard told media on Wednesday morning at The Hoop.<\/p>\n
The camp for kids aged 6 to 16 began on Tuesday and runs through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. It gives campers a chance to improve their basketball fundamentals while meeting the franchise star. Lillard held the event for the first time in the summer of 2014, just a few months after he vanquished the Houston Rockets<\/a> from the NBA Playoffs<\/a> with that famous buzzer-beater. This summer\u2019s camp, the event\u2019s 12th year, now comes just days after Lillard\u2019s storied return to the franchise at 35, following two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a whirlwind week for Lillard. He officially signed with the Blazers on Saturday. He was at the podium for a 30-minute re-introductory press conference on Monday night. Then Tuesday morning, he was on the courts at The Hoop to kick off the four-day event. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like by the time I got home the last three or four days, it\u2019s almost time to go to bed,\u201d Lillard said. \u201cI gotta put my kids down, eat, take a shower, and then I get in my bed and I want to watch TV or something, but I just end up sleeping. And the next day is here, and I gotta get going again. So I haven\u2019t really even had the time to sit back and even take in everything that\u2019s taken place.\u201d<\/p>\n On Wednesday morning, the six courts at the facility were crowded with kids participating in shooting and dribbling drills \u2014 many of them wearing Lillard jerseys. A group of coaches were stationed at each court, encouraging campers and modeling good technique. Lillard was also present in the mix, walking around the gym with his 4-year-old son Kalii in tow. This time around, however, Lillard has had to take more of a backseat during on-court drills and demonstrations as he recovers from the Achilles tear he suffered in April.<\/p>\n While his on-court mobility is more limited this year, Lillard\u2019s impact comes through to the campers in other ways. Once again, he worked to make the camp accessible for different kids, regardless of financial means. Lillard said they give out a lot of camp scholarships through the Black Parent Initiative, the Self Enhancement, Inc., his RESPECT program and other routes.<\/p>\n \u201cI just might know somebody that knows somebody that wants their kid to come to camp,\u201d Lillard said. \u201cI might have at least 20 kids where I\u2019m like, \u2018Just bring \u2018em, and when they check in, I\u2019ll be out in the back, and I\u2019ll just get \u2018em on the list and get \u2018em on the team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lillard said the big question on campers\u2019 minds last year was whether he\u2019d be coming back to the Blazers. Just as Lillard admitted at Monday\u2019s press conference, he said Tuesday he didn\u2019t expect to return just one year later. The unique circumstances have made this summer\u2019s camp more meaningful for him, too, not just the kids.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes it special just because of everything that\u2019s taken place over the last week,\u201d he said. \u201c … You can just feel the energy. People are excited and more than anything, just happy to have me back here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard\u2019s return to the franchise has been cause for celebration across Rip City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[13652,20870,64,63,726,1905,1902,20872,20871,20867,1906,20873,585,20869,20868,1787,9664,1628,85],"class_list":["post-20008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-amid","tag-annual","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-blazer","tag-blazers","tag-buzz","tag-camp","tag-damian","tag-edge","tag-from-press-row","tag-front-page","tag-hosts","tag-lillard","tag-of","tag-return","tag-s","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20008","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=20008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}