Dame’s PORTLAND NIGHTMARE: The Championship Dream That LIED 😱
Dear Portland, Dame is back. This might be the most beautiful story I’ve heard all summer. I still remember what he wrote when he left. I believe one day I’ll wear a Trailblazers jersey again. I hope by then those hearts I broke can forgive me. Now he’s fulfilled that promise sooner than we ever imagined. He returns at 35, bearing the scars from his journey without a championship ring, like an epilogue written just for him. Perhaps the moment he smiled bitterly through injuries, he’d already accepted this fate. In Portland, Lillard became a savior, leading the team’s competitiveness from his rookie season. Here, he achieved god-like status, too. In moments that belong to him, bleeding and crying for this city. He is the RIP city. Yet, he couldn’t escape human desires. He also chased his own championship. He tried. He failed. Pride lives in his heart, but he yearned for fulfillment, too. Only with Portland’s mark would it be complete. We can’t go back. Time won’t reverse. Those days of his and your youth can’t be relived. The faces that fought beside him are scattered across the globe. We can’t pretend the goodbye never happened. But every story has a next page. The most moving chapter here isn’t the glory under the brightest lights. It’s the homewardbound glow. I can already picture it. Next season at Mo Center. The roar when Lillard checks in. I can see that future day too when his no o jersey rises to the rafters lifted by his own hands. These past two years felt like a dream for Lillard, for fans, a dream of chasing the championship. Now the dream is over. But still, Lillard wears Portland’s number zero, and that is
Dame’s PORTLAND NIGHTMARE: The Championship Dream That LIED 😱
