{"id":163810,"date":"2025-09-17T19:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/163810\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T19:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T19:23:07","slug":"damian-lillard-just-cemented-his-blazers-legacy-with-latest-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/163810\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard just cemented his Blazers legacy with latest comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Damian Lillard recently expressed how thrilled he is <\/a>to return to Portland on an episode of\u00a0The Sideline with Andy Katz. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great. I\u2019m not an overly expressive person, but I think in my adulthood, coming back here at this time, with the age of my kids, with where the team is, it just feels right,” Lillard said. “The team has developed and grown over the last couple of years. Being back where I spent the first 11 years of my career, this is one of the times in my life where I feel extremely happy. Every day, I wake up and I\u2019m thankful. I\u2019m waking up, seeing my kids, taking them to school. I can just drive down to my mom\u2019s house. It\u2019s a blessing, man. I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Damian Lillard’s Blazers legacy transcends basketball<\/p>\n

Lillard’s comments touch on the two primary reasons he returned to the Blazers. The obvious one is the family aspect<\/a>. <\/p>\n

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Lillard had multiple mid-level exception and minimum offers from NBA contenders. Lillard easily could’ve continued his pursuit of his first ring elsewhere, and no one would’ve blamed him, especially since the Milwaukee Bucks were never his preferred landing spot. But Charania also noted that coming back to the Blazers franchise and being in Portland with his family “were of the ultimate importance.” <\/p>\n

Lillard is expected to miss the entire 2025-26 season as he continues to rehab from a brutal Achilles tear, but now gets to do that close to family. He also has a no-trade clause<\/a>, which is extremely rare for a contract of his size, but also ensures that Lillard will continue to be around his family. <\/p>\n

Blazers fans are just happy that he’s happy. Lillard is in an ideal situation, considering the circumstances of his injury. But he’s made it clear that this was also a basketball decision. <\/p>\n

The Blazers were a 21-win team after he was traded to Milwaukee, but they have significantly improved and are going to be tough out for any team with their gritty, defensive identity. That’s the perfect fit for the offensive-minded Lillard when he ultimately does return, and could potentially even give him a chance at winning that first ring with the franchise that drafted him in 2012. <\/p>\n

Regardless of whether he adds a championship to his resume, it’s apparent that Dame’s legacy is already solidified<\/a>. For the Blazers, he’s much more than the franchise’s leading scorer, and arguably the best to ever play. Lillard’s legacy transcends basketball as he’s embraced Portland in a way few superstars ever embrace their respective cities in today’s NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard recently expressed how thrilled he is to return to Portland on an episode of\u00a0The Sideline with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-163810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}