The Damian Lillard Appreciation Thread

[Effigy]

Ok, it's time we had this thread. I know tensions ran high, but this man gave us everything for 11 years.

I'm going to miss Dame time. I can't believe that we've seen his last game as a Blazer! Go get that chip!

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[DeBlazerRiddem]

Love Dame, thanks for making this thread.

The team had obviously failed him for a long time, the hole dug under Olshey was too big and Cronin clearly not up to the job - it might have been impossible and would have just burned assets making less than significant moves so maybe the smart play - but still at the end of the day we weren't able to do enough for Dame to justify keeping him around.

Sad about how things ended between us, wasn't the worst break-up but wasn't the best either, but I think it resolved in the best way possible for both sides. So happy for Milwaukee and Dame is going somewhere that will truly value and love what he brings to the team and the city so I can feel good all the way around about the end result here. Miami would have been a use-him-and-lose-him type of "what have you done for me recently" relationship and he is better off not going there IMHO.

Would have been much smoother had Miami not gotten their grubby little fingers into the mix with their used-car-salesman tactics and Dame and his agent hadn't been foolish enough to play into their self-serving plot, but plenty of blame to go around on all sides so cant throw too many rocks on the Blazers side either.

[Capn'O]

The 'Os moved to Portland in 2012 so I've never known a version of Rip City without #0. The City and Franchise have been very fortunate to have somebody represent us with such grace and dignity for over a decade. As a man, he was so easy to root for and while I was more of an Aldridge guy at first he earned his place alongside Ewing and Duncan as my favorite athletes of all time. On the court, there was never a dull moment at Moda when Dame Time was available and of course we'll always have two moments where the whole state leaped in unison and we all wondered if we'd just caused The Big One. Hope he gets his ring (unless he meets New York or PDX along the way.) Cheers Dame.

[m0ng0]

Nope...adios amigo

[The Sebastian Express]

Nope...adios amigo

No need to do this in an appreciation thread. Plenty of other places to express the sentiment, let people who want to celebrate Dame celebrate him in a thread about celebrating and being grateful for him.

[PDXKnight]

Dame I love what you did for Portland from the bottom of my heart. I'm sorry we couldn't do you a solid and get you any co stars so I don't blame you for wanting an escape eventually. Maybe the handling could have and should have been done better but live and learn. Best of luck to Dame and I hope he wins a title in Milwaukie

[DeBlazerRiddem]

The 'Os moved to Portland in 2012 so I've never known a version of Rip City without #0. The City and Franchise have been very fortunate to have somebody represent us with such grace and dignity for over a decade. As a man, he was so easy to root for and while I was more of an Aldridge guy at first he earned his place alongside Ewing and Duncan as my favorite athletes of all time. On the court, there was never a dull moment at Moda when Dame Time was available and of course we'll always have two moments where the whole state leaped in unison and we all wondered if we'd just caused The Big One. Hope he gets his ring (unless he meets New York or PDX along the way.) Cheers Dame.

So many amazing and special moments that we were able to be apart of with that man, truly unforgettable. You are not wrong at making the entire state jump off their seats at the same time.

I've always had a philosophy that being a fan is more about the journey than the destination. Maybe that comes from being a fan in a small market with limited reasons to hope, but I really take that mentality into life as well. Enjoy the moments, when you are focused on something else you miss the true purpose of being here.

[Effigy]

[Moonbeam]

This is tough.

Damian Lillard was the unexpected light to come after the last gasp of the Roy and Oden era came to an abrupt, premature, and very sad end that left me heartbroken as a fan. He was a rookie when I excitedly added Blazer-themed baby clothes to my order of the first Blazer gear I had bought in some 5 years. My 10-month son was there in my wife arms as we nervously watched Dame exorcise 14 years of playoff demons with the 0.9 shot against the Rockets and I screamed in excitement around the house. Damian Lillard compelled me to wake up in the middle of the night while I was working in Europe to watch the 2018 playoffs, and more excitedly attempt to contain my audible excitement when he dropped the 37-footer to cap a 50-point closeout win against the Thunder the next year. When I returned back to Australia for the second round, my now 5-year-old son watched that nervous Game 7 with me, a game he still recalls to this day. Portland's playoff push and Dame's brilliance in that Denver series gave me something to focus on other than the quagmire of questions and grief after the loss of my Mom to COVID in April 2021. My son is now 10 years old, and he'll probably ask me where Damian is the next time I'm watching Portland play.

And that's hard for me to envision, if I'm honest. This post makes it sound like I'm a Dame-only fan. I'm definitely not. But for 11 years, he has been the central figure to my Blazer fandom. My eyes follow him on the court more than any other Blazer player, and I feel like they're still going to reflexively look for him when I watch them play. It's going to take some adjusting the next time Portland is down 9 points in the middle of the fourth quarter and not having the hope that Dame could steer the team toward another improbable victory.

Beyond that, Dame was all I could have ever wanted as the face of the franchise. It may feel hollow at the moment given the way things ended, but Dame made it so easy to root for him and for the team. Dame was one of the best leaders of a team I've seen in professional sports. His forthright and honest opinions in interviews were refreshing, and his hunger and drive to succeed were infectious. I honestly struggled with a character like Neil Olshey as GM, but my love and respect for Dame carried more weight than my uneasiness with NO. Dame has limitations as a player, particularly on defense, but I feel he absolutely got the most out of his talent while with Portland, and those teams nearly always seemed to outperform their overall talent level. It feels like it's going to be quite some time before we get a player of Dame's caliber again. Hopefully I'm wrong, and Scoot or Shaedon or someone else will take the baton and run as far and as fast with it as Dame did when he joined the team, but Dame has set a very high bar to clear.

I was 15 years old when Portland moved on from my first favorite player, Jerome Kersey, and that Portland left him vulnerable in the expansion draft still leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but Kersey was clearly in decline. After that, I watched Portland trade away Brian Grant to Miami, and while that also was tough, it was clear that Grant wasn't as integral to the team as he had been the year prior. With my next favorite Blazer in Brandon Roy, it became clear that his knees weren't going to allow him to be the player he once was, which made those Game 4 heroics against Dallas all the more special. Now with Dame, I'm watching the team trade away my favorite contemporary Blazer, but this time, he seems to be at or near his peak as a player. I do take solace in the fact that Milwaukee is poised to be really, really good, the kind of team that Portland could never come close to building around him. If Milwaukee wins a title, I will be very happy for Dame, as I was happy for Jerome in 1999 despite the WCF victory coming at Portland's expense.

I hope the fanbase is able to reflect on just how much Damian Lillard gave to the team, and embraces him for the great player and person he is. I know these past several months have been rocky, but that will not and can not erase the decade+ of joy and wonder Lillard brought to Portland.

[RTG HD]

Not the only new start for Dame. Wish him the best moving forward.
https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2023/10/04/damian-lillard-files-for-divorce-from-his-wife-kayla-lillard/

[Pattycakes]

Idk if it’s an elephant or an entire zoo in the room, but dame burned that bridge likely in a way that will not be fixable.

Rose garden will go loud cause most of them don’t even follow the nba year round, but to consistent fans I think it’s a difficult place dame is in.

Love him, but he def had more coward tendencies than I think anyone realizes

[JRoy]

It was fun.

Good luck with MIL and I hope we crush you on your first visit to POR (after standing o).

[monopoman]

Easily one of the greatest Blazers to ever live, I just hope he doesn't pull a Clyde Drexler and forget the team that selected him and were a huge part of the reason he became as good as he did. A fanbase that also stood by him and supported him no matter what even when we had some embarrassing series like the Pelicans.

Dame is one of my favorite players of all time and while I will always support the Blazers over every other team I am probably going to get on the bandwagon for the Bucks over the next few years. I always wanted to see Dame+Giannis on the same team and that dream has been fulfilled, I would have loved to see it in Portland but that was not how it played out.