{"id":723469,"date":"2026-05-02T04:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723469\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T04:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:42:16","slug":"damian-lillard-reveals-why-he-ultimately-aborted-a-heroic-playoff-comeback-for-the-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723469\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard reveals why he ultimately aborted a “heroic” playoff comeback for the Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past year or so has been nothing short of challenging for Damian Lillard<\/a>, recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, an injury he sustained during the first-round matchup between his former team, the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, and the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 playoffs.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the Bucks decided to waive him under the stretch provision, which would have the remaining $112.6 million of his salary paid over the next five years instead of two. Turning free agent, Dame Time decided to return home to the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He reportedly signed a three-year, $42 million deal with the Trail Blazers. That said, it was unlikely he would play in the 2025-26 season as he continued to rehab from his Achilles. Meanwhile, the Portland organization underwent some significant changes, entering a rebuild.<\/p>\n

During a recent press conference, Lillard admitted he toyed with the idea of returning for the playoffs but eventually dropped it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely thought about it. I never really put it out there or tried to start a conversation about it, so it was funny when it began to come up because I hadn\u2019t mentioned it,\u201dsaid<\/a> the 35-year-old, who had been showing positive trends in his recovery.<\/p>\n

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Keeping the door open<\/p>\n

Lillard did not deny considering a comeback around playoff time, but wanted to see how far things went with the Blazers. Interestingly, Dame did end up making a cameo during the 2025-26 season, courtesy of his participation in the three-point contest, which he also won.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Dame didn’t want to rush his return or interfere with the team’s rhythm that had been showing positive signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I was aware it had been a full season, the team was playing well, and I didn\u2019t want to disrupt what they had built.Fans might expect a heroic comeback, but I hadn\u2019t played in a year. Even though I\u2019d been training and could\u2019ve been productive, that would\u2019ve been giving me a lot of credit to think I\u2019d just come back and go crazy,\u201d mentioned Lillard.<\/p>\n

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Finishing off the season as the 7th seed in the West, Portland clinched a playoff spot after a four-year absence. Despite losing to the San Antonio Spurs in five games of the first round, the Trail Blazers had a lot of positives to take from the year gone by, and with Dame Time returning soon, the future only looks bright for them.<\/p>\n

What to expect in the upcoming 2026-27 season<\/p>\n

It is an exciting time to be a Blazers fan, who have undergone a significant transition in recent years, developing a strong young core with the likes of Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe. Add to that mix the franchise OG Dame Time making his return, too.<\/p>\n

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Thus, one can expect the Blazers to give the opposition some trouble in the upcoming years. At the same time, with Lillard back in the mix, one can expect the franchise to draw a lot more eyeballs, given the box-office pull the veteran guard continues to hold in Portland.<\/p>\n

As a result, Portland is set to return to prime-time television in the upcoming season. But, as far as winning a championship is concerned, the Blazers will still need to tick some boxes, especially with how stacked the Western Conference has been in recent years.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past year or so has been nothing short of challenging for Damian Lillard, recovering from a torn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,125,980,974,126,121,6,687,471,3967,474,4425,4426,4498,9619,1617],"class_list":["post-723469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-damian-lillard","tag-deni-avdija","tag-donovan-clingan","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-scoot-henderson","tag-shaedon-sharpe","tag-the-blazers","tag-torn-achilles-tendon","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116503153467287776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}