Damian Lillard is ecstatic to be back with the Portland Trail Blazers and wants everyone — including the Milwaukee Bucks — to know that he wouldn’t want it any other way. Hours after the Bucks announced Wednesday that Kyle Kuzma will wear Lillard’s old No. 0 for the upcoming season, Lillard made a posted on his Instagram story admiring his new look.
While he didn’t mention the Bucks or Kuzma specifically, Lillard captioned a photo of himself holding his familiar Portland No. 0 jersey, “if I send u dis, jus kno I know where home at” followed by three “100” emojis.
Kuzma’s switching to Lillard’s old digit after averaging 14.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game his first season with the Bucks. (Kuzma also began his career with No. 0.) He no-showed in the playoffs, shooting 34.3% from the floor during Milwaukee’s series loss to the Indiana Pacers. Lillard suffered an Achilles injury during Game 4 of that series and is expected to miss most — if not all — of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Lillard seemingly won the basketball lottery on July 1 when the Bucks decided to waive him while stretching the remaining $113 million left on his contract over the next five years. That freed up funds for Milwaukee to sign Indiana center Myles Turner on a four-year deal and gave Lillard an opportunity to sign with his franchise of choice.
Lillard, a nine-time All-Star, quickly finalized a three-year deal with Portland, returning to the franchise he spent 11 years with before asking for a trade in 2023.
Accompanied by his three children, Lillard said it “never felt right” not being home with the Trail Blazers.
“Through it all, I found my way back and just fortunate to be back with the group that I was with prior to leaving,” Lillard said during his reintroduction of sorts.
Prior to spending the last two seasons in Milwaukee, Lillard was a first-round pick in 2012 for the Trail Blazers and won Rookie of the Year before helping the franchise to eight playoff appearances over the next 11 seasons.
“Just knowing that I’m going to be back home for all parts of my life, with my kids, playing for the Trail Blazers, driving on the same streets that I’ve driven on pretty much my entire adulthood, my whole family being here, my mom, my brother, my sisters, all my friends around the city of Portland,” Lillard said. “All of those things count. I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.”
Lillard’s time in Milwaukee unlucky
Lillard failed to win his first NBA title with the Bucks, an obvious goal after Milwaukee paired the elite scorer with multi-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo with that in mind.
“I think you gotta be a little bit lucky to win big,” Lillard recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “You gotta be healthy and you gotta be playing your best at the right time and I think we just had bad luck. … I wouldn’t say it was incomplete. I thought we just couldn’t stay healthy. I think that’s the biggest hurdle. That was our biggest hurdle and each year that was the case.”
Lillard believes the criticism he faced in Milwaukee was unfair given his production and contributions as a veteran in the backcourt. The Bucks made trips to the playoffs both seasons but came up short as the No. 3 and 5 seeds, respectively.
“I had the ball all the time, so it just looked different,” Lillard said, “but I think for how productive I actually was, I think it’s been viewed unfairly. Because how many other people have averaged 25 a game with seven assists as the No. 1 option, let alone playing with somebody like Giannis?”
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