{"id":22969,"date":"2025-10-08T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=22969"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:44:08","slug":"the-road-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/the-road-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The road home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Damian Lillard holds Trail Blazers jersey in a hallway. | From @damianlillard on Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oct 8 2025 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 27, 2023, Portland Trail Blazers point guard and franchise legend Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a deal that broke the hearts of Blazers fans who had embraced Lillard since he arrived in 2012. Earlier that offseason, Lillard had requested a trade with hopes of having a better opportunity to compete for an NBA championship. The Bucks, who were two years removed from winning a title with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the team, seemed to give Lillard the best chance he\u2019d ever had to do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, things didn\u2019t go quite as planned. In the first season, internal struggles between Bucks players and the coaching staff kept the team from reaching its high expectations. In his second season with Milwaukee, Lillard was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and had to miss the final month of the regular season before returning just in time for the playoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in the fourth game of the Bucks\u2019 first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers, Lillard fell to the ground and immediately reached for his leg. Further examinations would reveal that Lillard had torn his Achilles tendon, a notoriously hard injury to recover from, especially for a player who would soon be 35. The Bucks would go on to lose the series, falling short of expectations again. With pressure mounting to keep the team\u2019s championship window open just a crack, the Bucks decided to waive Damian Lillard and free up cap space in order to add Pacers center Myles Turner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outside looking in, it seemed as though Lillard\u2019s career had hit rock bottom. He left Portland, the city that his family still called home and where he himself had spent most of his adult life, in search of the championship that had eluded him his entire career, only to come up short and be off the team two years later. Not to mention the long road he now had ahead of him to recover from his injury and begin playing again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in what might\u2019ve been his career\u2019s darkest moment, something familiar found him again. The Portland Trail Blazers, who had spent the past two seasons trying to rebuild the roster after trading Lillard, offered him a three-year $42 million deal that would allow him to spend his rehab in Portland, alongside his children and an organization that he knew so well. Upon the news that Lillard was returning to Portland, Blazers fans who were heartbroken to see him leave just two years earlier and had watched the Blazers go through the growing pains of the post-Lillard era, were completely re-energized. During his introductory press conference, Lillard said, \u201cIt never felt right, not being home.\u201d Last month, the organization held a rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square celebrating Lillard\u2019s return, and it was obvious how much happier both Lillard and Blazers fans have been with him back in Portland. \u201cJust being back in this city, you know, has brought a different type of joy back to my life,\u201d Lillard said while addressing the crowd of thousands at Pioneer Square. While he won\u2019t play until next season, Lillard\u2019s return has injected excitement into a fanbase that surely cannot wait to welcome him back to the Moda Center as a member of the home team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 27, 2023, Portland Trail Blazers point guard and franchise legend Damian Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a deal that broke the hearts of Blazers fans who had embraced Lillard since he arrived in 2012. Earlier that offseason, Lillard had requested a trade with hopes of having a better opportunity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"The road home","_seopress_titles_desc":"How Damian Lillard found his way home again","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6822,1512,6820,6824,6825,6823,2278,6826,3389,6827,6821,246],"class_list":["post-22969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-achilles","tag-basketball","tag-damian-lillard","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-moda-center","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba","tag-pioneer-courthouse","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-sports"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23464,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22969\/revisions\/23464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}