{"id":173088,"date":"2025-09-22T02:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/173088\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T02:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:58:07","slug":"thousands-pack-pioneer-square-to-welcome-damian-lillard-back-to-the-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/173088\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands pack Pioneer Square to welcome Damian Lillard back to the Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"OINRJWVJ4ZAJDL6K66CIR7JKNI\">Thousands of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/blazers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/blazers\/\">Trail Blazers<\/a> fans packed Portland\u2019s Pioneer Courthouse Square on a sunny Sunday afternoon to welcome franchise legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/topic\/damian-lillard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/topic\/damian-lillard\/\">Damian Lillard<\/a> back to Rip City. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"AHF57Z5O55BKRG4YTRKVCUHS4U\">\u201cThe Trail Blazers, the city of Portland, being part of this community, y\u2019all know it means to me,\u201d Lillard told the crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"K4BDA5LTDVCFFIDJG7MP5OLFIM\">\u201cI\u2019m extremely excited and happy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"3AAC7NTHAFGSVNVQ6CVHG2NN74\">Lillard, drafted seventh by the Blazers in the 2012 NBA draft, is returning to Portland after two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks. The 35-year-old, seven-time All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/sports\/2025\/07\/damian-lillard-deep-in-discussions-with-trail-blazers-about-possible-return-bill-oram.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/sports\/2025\/07\/damian-lillard-deep-in-discussions-with-trail-blazers-about-possible-return-bill-oram.html\">signed a a three-year, $42 million deal<\/a> to reunite with the franchise after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/sports\/2025\/04\/bill-oram-damian-lillards-achilles-injury-opens-a-wound-for-blazers-fans-too.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/sports\/2025\/04\/bill-oram-damian-lillards-achilles-injury-opens-a-wound-for-blazers-fans-too.html\">suffering a torn Achilles<\/a> in April. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"WRQMPQVL5JGORLTRADRYBZ4CMQ\">\u201cJust being back in this city, you know, has brought a different type of joy back to my life,\u201d Lillard, whose family remained in Portland during his time with the Bucks, said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"ZBELK5R2PNEPXGBZFD4MBMNOYE\">\u201cThe love never changed and it\u2019s going to continue to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/user-agreement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/privacy-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Trail Blazers fans packed Portland\u2019s Pioneer Courthouse Square on a sunny Sunday afternoon to welcome franchise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-173088","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\/173088","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=173088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}