This season has not gone according to plan for Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. With just a few more weeks left until the final game, they are just 12th in the West with a 27-46 record.
Lillard, 31, has missed most of it with an abdominal injury.
Despite it all, however, Dame hasn’t lost any faith in the team or himself. In a recent chat with Chris Haynes, he actually expressed excitement about the path ahead for Portland and denied feeling any pressure to remind the world of what he can do.
Haynes: “Oftentimes, when a star player is absent an extended period, people tend to forget about them. And then there are other emerging stars who are anointed. Is there an eagerness to get back out there and remind those that you’re still one of the best point guards in the league?”
Lillard: “I don’t even take that much of it into consideration. I think there’s always going to be a recency bias. This league is always about what have you done for me lately? There are guys that are going to have big games in big stretches and people are going to act like it’s the best thing in the world. I might have been somebody who benefited from that in the past. That’s just a part of the game. But I’m not looking at it like, ‘They’re going remember me.’ I just made the 75th Anniversary Team. That’s all the validation that I would need. My resume and who I am speaks for itself. I know that the best days for me have yet to come. So, I’m not looking at it like I got to come back and make them remember me. I know who I am. I know what I do. And when I get back on the floor, you know, that’s gonna be that. I don’t think it has to be some big message that I’m coming back to send. We’re in the NBA, great players come along and people find themselves getting the credit they deserve based on performance. But that really don’t have anything to do with me because once I get on the court, I am who I am and I do what I do and people will respect my game when they see me on the court. Right now, I haven’t been on the court. So it’s out of sight, out of mind. I understand that’s how fans and media feel.”
Lillard has been pressed to leave the Blazers for years now. after 9 years in the league, his team is no closer to winning a title now than they were when he was drafted.
With some flexibility this summer, the hope is that Portland can re-tool and re-structure their roster to finally be a real threat in the West.
No doubt, Lillard will be ready to play regardless and there’s a good chance he’ll come back next year better than ever.
