The ‘Damian Lillard trade saga’ has finally come to an end. At around 11am this past Wednesday, Dame and his agent, Aaron Goodwin, got word that he would be traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in a 3-team deal. In his 11 years in the league, Lillard’s played for just one team and so his farewell to Portland has been filled with emotions. In a recent post on his Instagram, he bid farewell to a slew of personalities in and around the Blazers organization. Towards the end of the 10-slide post, he would blatantly go on to admit that he would like to one day return to PDX despite having just been traded.
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Lillard’s journey to a different team hasn’t been smooth unfortunately. Complications with Blazers GM Joe Cronin arose quite often as he told Dame that the organization isn’t inclined to take a lesser package just to accommodate for Dame’s preferred destination.
In an exclusive with Bleacher Report, Chris Haynes reported that Lillard asked Joe Cronin if he could rescind his trade offer if the Miami deal wasn’t going to work out. Cronin reportedly said that there was no coming back for him.
Damian Lillard says he wants to return to the Blazers one day
Damian Lillard and his camp have gone through quite a bit these past few months. Whether it was having soured their relationship with the Blazers front office to a certain degree or them simply not getting placed in Miami, it has been a tumultuous 2023 offseason.
Saying farewell to PDX was never going to be easy for Dame and in trying to put it the past 11 years behind him, he released a 10-slide post on Instagram. He thanked every person he could think of from this journey of his and towards the end, stated that he would like to return to Portland one day.
“I do believe a day will come where I put a Blazers uniform on again, and hopefully by then I’ll be forgiven for breaking your hearts along with my own”
Despite all the turmoil, Dame still wants to return to the team that drafted him 6th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft. In an IG live from yesterday after the trade went down, he would go on to say that he was not selling his house in Portland either, leaving the door open for a return.
Damian Lillard and his trade request had Tyler Herro stressed
In the midst of Damian Lillard wanting out of Portland and only wanting to be on the Miami Heat, the Heat’s 23 year old star, Tyler Herro, was put in quite nearly every single trade package imaginable. Herro however, can rest easy knowing that he’s still a member of the Heat.
Of course, he would take to Twitter/X to poke a bit of fun at the whole situation, tweeting out that he survived the trade rumors until next summer. He would then go on to say that being a kid from Milwaukee, he would for sure go to grab a Dame Milwaukee jersey.
