Damian Lillard’s rare form of loyalty was always going to lead him back to Portland | Bill Oram

Soak it in, Rip City.

Take a moment to really, truly bask in the beautiful absurdity of this whole thing, the delicious and delirious storybook tale that is unfolding right here in Portland, in all of Oregon, because of the fierce loyalty repeatedly demonstrated by your favorite son.

Damian Lillard

is home to stay

.

Can you believe it? Can you feel it? Can you even stand it?!

What a world. What a life.

Two years after Lillard exited, shattering the championship dreams he had carried with Sisyphean determination, he is back to try again.

Today we put aside the question of

whether this homecoming truly makes basketball sense

for Lillard or the Trail Blazers.

Of whether the prodigal star can ever really go home.

Dame is 35 and recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. He will likely miss all of next season. The Blazers now have a young core designed without the superstar point guard in mind.

Will it be as simple as inserting him into the lineup a year from now and taking flight?

I don’t know. And today I don’t even care.

This moment is really just about appreciating something wonderful.

Dame really is different. One of one. Special.

By returning to the city that loves him and the franchise that nurtured him, he has performed an act that is unprecedented in NBA history.

What other star has so consistently backed up their loyalty to a city and its fanbase as Lillard?

Every player wants to be loved. To be revered and adored. To become an icon in their city.

But how many are willing to make the sacrifices Lillard has to achieve that status?

He repeatedly chose to double down on the Trail Blazers when others might have schemed to make a break for it. He stayed patient amid front office decisions that lacked urgency. He watched as stars like Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant left their small market homes for faster paths to success.

Lillard maintained that he would not run from the grind. That he would fight for Portland.

And when he finally did leave to pursue a championship, once every road in Portland had led to a dead end, he said he would one day return.

Now, he’s backed that up, too.

It will be a long journey before Lillard is back in the lineup. Before he runs onto the floor to what might be the loudest cheers ever recorded inside Moda Center. The man received a one-minute standing ovation when he returned as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks in 2024.

On opening night in 2026, they should hand out earplugs at the door.

Consider how unlikely this homecoming was. How farfetched it would have seemed when the Blazers honored his trade request in September 2023 and sent him to Milwaukee in exchange for a host of players and picks to begin what figured to be a slow and painful rebuild.

Along the way, the Blazers discovered an identity. They found the beginning pieces of a core in Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara. They added Jrue Holiday for more defensive savvy.

And then Milwaukee did the thing nobody saw coming. After Lillard tore his Achilles, the win-now Bucks bought Lillard out of the final two years of his contract and the astronomical dollar figure attached.

He could have gone anywhere. Or nowhere.

He could have waited to see how his rehabilitation went before deciding where he should play his final years. He could have taken one more run at a championship alongside other superstars in a place like Los Angeles or Boston before signing with the Trail Blazers at the bitter end of his career while still keeping his word.

Whatever glory days remain ahead of him, it seems, will be gifted back to Portland, to the Trail Blazers and their fans.

Lillard’s remarkable commitment to the Rose City will echo throughout NBA history, but most especially here. His local legend, already something like a Greek god among mortals, has somehow grown even bigger with this decision.

Drafted sixth overall in 2012, he grew from a small school overachiever into an All-NBA point guard and a certified buzzer-beating badass with unlimited range, unwavering determination, unmatched confidence.

He pushed the limits of what counted as a good shot in the NBA and in the process helped Blazers fans push limits within themselves.

Children emulated his swagger. Parents celebrated his goodness. Everyone cheered his many, many baskets.

In the 11 years he played here, Lillard connected with the city and the fanbase in ways that very, very few superstars ever do. Yes, he has businesses here. His family continues to live here. His children, following a divorce, remained in Portland while he played the last two seasons in Milwaukee. This decision allows him to reestablish himself as a constant presence in their lives.

So, in a sense, this could be seen as a convenient, or even selfish, decision by Lillard. Choosing family and familiarity over basketball.

But I don’t think that’s all there is to it.

I suspect that Lillard believes he has unfinished business in the red and black threads that will be hanging there, waiting for him for the next year in his old corner locker.

I don’t know if the story will ever truly come full circle. If he’ll complete the task of bringing a championship to Portland.

But he has now done something that, to many Blazers fans, will feel every bit as meaningful.

He has come home to try.

—

Bill Oram

is the sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.

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