At Damian Lillard’s homecoming game last January, it was a handmade sign held high by a little boy that earned the night’s most stirring ovation.
“Get your ring,” the sign read. “Then come back home.”
That syrupy sentiment was perhaps the only thing that made Lillard’s exit from Portland somewhat tolerable. The belief that in Milwaukee, Dame could do what he never would in Portland, and that on the other side of that, there could be a reunion.
It may always have been an unreasonably idealistic notion, that dream which was shared by Trail Blazers fans and Lillard alike. But what is the point of dreams if not to provide a safe harbor for our most absurd and aspirational whims?
That is why the image of Lillard crumpling to the court on Sunday night in Milwaukee, of him reaching to feel the back of his leg and trainers helping him hop off the court, resonates so profoundly here.
Damian Lillard is helped off the court after an apparent Achilles tendon injury during the first quarter in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round NBA Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers at Fiserv Forum on April 27, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)Getty Images
The dream, that illusion of comfort, has been shattered.
This is just not how it was supposed to go.
Not with Lillard suffering what an MRI on Monday confirmed was a torn Achilles tendon and his team on the verge of a first-round exit for the second straight year.
“It’s not very promising,” Bucks’ coach Doc Rivers said grimly on Sunday night.
The list of stars who were never the same after tearing their Achilles is much longer than the list of those who returned to play at a high level. There have been more Kobe Bryants than there have been Kevin Durants. And while it is certainly possible that Lillard will be among that latter group — another dream worth harboring — he will soon turn 35. He has a long road ahead of him with a short window beyond that.
Lillard has two years and $112 million left on his contract. Next year, the Bucks will pay him $54 million while he rehabs the injury and misses most, if not all, of the season.
It’s fair to wonder what kind of team will be waiting for him when he returns. If he returns.
Giannis Antetokounmpo told the New York Times last year that he only saw himself remaining in Milwaukee for the rest of his career if the Bucks remained on a championship path.
“As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it,” the two-time Most Valuable Player said. “The moment I feel like, oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild —”
Is it even possible for Milwaukee to be a true contender with an aging roster and an injured co-star? Is Giannis willing to bet his future on Lillard being the same player at 36 that he was before suffering the most devastating injury to a basketball player?
That all feels unreasonably idealistic, too.
Antetokounmpo will soon be 31 and is on a timeline of his own. It may no longer be a Dame timeline.
The more likely truth is that Lillard’s pursuit of a championship alongside Giannis, the kind of superstar teammate he so long yearned for and tried to recruit to Portland, is functionally over. And that it never was given a fair chance to succeed.
Last year, Antetokounmpo was hurt for the Bucks’ first-round loss to the Pacers.
This year, Lillard overcame a blood clot that sidelined him for the final month of the season to returned during the first round, only to then go down in Game 4 with the worst injury of his career.
It’s profoundly unfair for Lillard. Just a cruel twist of fate for a player who only asked to be traded because he wanted a chance to be able to credibly contend for a championship.
For that ring the young fan, and all Blazers fans, wanted him to win.
We want good things for Dame. All of us. Because he did so many good things for Portland, for its fans, for its spirit. In as much as anyone deserves anything, he deserved for it to work in Milwaukee.
Klay Thompson called the first few months after he tore his Achilles in 2020 “the darkest days of my life.”
The emotional toll of a major injury can be heavier than the physical.
It’s a painful reminder that there are no guarantees in sports. That the unpredictability that makes us love the games — the very thing that has made Lillard such a compelling player for so long, his ability to deliver in unexpected ways — is the same thing that will rip your heart out.
Lillard can still win a championship. And he can still come back to Portland someday.
But it won’t be in the way we all envisioned. Or wanted to believe that we could see.
If I could find that young fan who was in the stands last January, I’d like to ask him what he would write on a sign for Lillard today.
I think it might be, “Get well. You’ll always have a home here.”