It still doesn’t feel completely real that Damian Lillard is on the Portland Trail Blazers roster again.
Even though Lillard signed with the team over the summer, he has not played for the Blazers this season due to his recovery from a torn Achilles. Fans caught a glimpse of Lillard back with the Blazers when he won the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend, but it still hasn’t sunk in that he’s with the team.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin got the ball rolling to make it happen and he shared his initial reaction when the team initially re-signed him in an interview with Robert Ohman and Aaron Mesh of the Willamette Week.
“I was by myself. I was in Vegas at Summer League, and I was in my room. So I wasn’t able to celebrate or anything, but I was just so incredibly happy. I just had a big smile on my face, like, OK, we did it. He’s back,” Cronin said in his interview.
“Throughout that day and evening, I got so many notes and messages and heard so many stories about how everyone just kind of went nuts. I got notes from other players and things like that: All is right in the NBA again, Dame’s back with Portland. I could feel those ripples and it was really cool.”