Damian Lillard’s torn Achilles sends a wave of sadness through Portland

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PORTLAND, Ore. – When Damian Lillard was carried off the court Sunday night with a season-ending Achilles injury, it sent shock waves through more than just the NBA playoff bracket.

More than 2,000 miles west of Milwaukee, the tremors of Lillard’s injury rocked Portland at its core.

When students arrived at HB Lee Middle School on Monday morning, seventh-grade teacher Sunil Schauffler said there was a palpable pall over his students. He was expecting the down mood, because he, too, was in a funk.

At Big’s Chicken in Southeast Portland, the wind was knocked out of a server mid-shift. At Palomar restaurant in Northwest Portland, a chef questioned whether he would continue to watch the rest of the NBA playoffs. And at Back to the Basket sports apparel in the Hawthorne district, a shop owner stood below a mural of Lillard and wondered if this stunning injury could eventually return Lillard to Portland.

From kids to adults, nowhere outside of Milwaukee was Lillard’s injury felt more than in Portland, which still holds onto its former star as tightly as it did when he was becoming the franchise’s leading scorer over 11 seasons.

“I’ve been talking to my students about it all day,” Schauffler said. “He still means so much to this city. The students are all so sad. And I mean, these are middle school kids — they don’t care about anything yet. But it was the first thing out of their mouths this morning: ‘Did you hear? Did you hear?’”

Schauffler said he took the opportunity to turn Lillard’s injury into a teachable moment. He talked to them about legacy — what it means and how they are formed.

“We had a discussion about why his legacy is different,” Schauffler said. “Because there have been other guys who have left here, like even when Clyde (Drexler) left it was ‘Oh, OK. Bye.’ But when Dame left, we all still care. And that’s what’s different. That’s what we call a living legacy.”

Perhaps never has another NBA city rooted for another NBA city like Portland did for Milwaukee. Even though Lillard in 2023 requested to be traded, and though he has been gone for two seasons, Portland still largely roots for Lillard.

“He was something for us all to latch onto, honestly,” said Ricky Bella, 34, the chef and owner of Palomar. “He was the closest any of us have gotten to celebrating a championship. We all probably knew we weren’t going to win a championship, but it was like, ‘Yeah, but look how good Dame is.’”

At Big’s Chicken, Matt Csejtey was working behind the counter Sunday evening when he looked up and saw the ticker report of Lillard’s injury. He cringed.

“I was bummed … reaaaaaaally bummed out,” Csejtey said. “He’s been like a backbone to this city for so long, and I think all of us have been rooting for him. Now, he’s gonna be out for another year … man, I feel really bad for him.”

Damian Lillard showed love for Portland fans during introductions of his first game back at Moda Center as a member of the Bucks on Jan. 31, 2024. (Troy Wayrynen/USA TODAY Sports)

Portland is a city that thirsts for connection with its players, and with Lillard, Portland saw a lot of itself: an underdog, underappreciated, a hidden gem, a place where mental toughness is needed to get through the gloomy winters. That was Lillard: undersized, overlooked earlier in his career, and one who kept grinding amid teams good enough to make the playoffs but never good enough to truly contend.

“I’ve thought about this a lot: I just think he is kind of what Portland is,” Schauffler said. “He was this upstart kid, from a small school (Weber State), not recruited heavily … and Portland gets behind that. Because we are not a big city. We are not a top-five destination. We are never going to be the Lakers, the Celtics … the Bulls. We’re never going to have that. So every time we win a little something, it means a lot to us. And that’s what Dame was to us.”

He forged that connection by continually reinforcing his commitment and appreciation for Portland. He lived here year-round. He said he literally had dreams of a championship parade on Broadway downtown. Even his uniform showed our home was part of him: He didn’t wear number 0, he wore the letter O. Oakland is his hometown. Ogden, Utah was his college home. And Oregon was his adopted home.

“We were one of the three O’s .. like, it was really cool to see a player that actually wanted to be here in Portland,” said Troy Douglass, owner of Back to the Basket on Hawthorne, which sports a mural of Lillard on the storefront. “He just had this relentlessness to be loyal to our city.”

When he grabbed the microphone after his last-second shot to beat Houston in 2014 and screamed “Rip Ciiiiiiiiity!” he became a legend. When he waved bye-bye to Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Oklahoma City with a 37-foot bomb at the buzzer in the 2019 playoffs, he became immortal.

When he requested a trade in the summer of 2023, he was not vilified; he was excused. When his request was granted in the form of a trade with Milwaukee, the sting was soothed by the possibility he could pair with Giannis Antetokounmpo and finally win the title that had eluded him.

“When he left, I totally got it,” Bella said. “I was never mad for a second. As much of a die-hard as I am, like being pragmatic about it, I was like, ‘Yeah, I would have done the same thing.’ And … Milwaukee became my second favorite team.”

He was an era, a part of people’s lives they will never forget. Some on Monday remembered some of their biggest life events in conjunction with Lillard’s time in Portland. Bella got his first job as a chef during Lillard’s rookie season. Douglass, the shop owner, started his business in 2020 after Lillard wore one of his caps after the Oklahoma City playoff shot.

Others recounted why Lillard connected so deeply with them. Patrick McKee, the owner and chef at Estes Ristorante in North Portland, remembers a dinner hosted by 15 chefs that Lillard attended in 2022. After the meal, Lillard went to the back and thanked each chef. McKee was wearing a Blazers hat, and Lillard thanked him for being a fan.

For McKee, Lillard’s gesture was a reinforcement of his opinion that Portland had fallen in love with a different caliber of star. Years before the big dinner when Lillard thanked the chefs, he made a postgame comment about delivering under pressure. Lillard said real pressure is being a single mom raising kids, or having a blue-collar job.

“That quote really stuck with me, and just kind of made me understand who he was as a person,” said McKee, 55. “And as a dad, it really resonated with me that this guy has his eye on a bigger picture than sports.”

So in a roundabout way, there was a collective groan late Sunday night in Portland when Lillard crumpled to the floor like he had been shot in Milwaukee. The Blazers’ season had long been over, and so the postseason meant cheering for the city’s favorite son. And now, it was over.

At HB Lee Middle School, the kids were down. And their teacher, Schauffler, said he felt like crying.

“I’m not a crier, I’m a pretty stoic individual, but last night was the closest in sports I came to crying since we blew the lead to the Lakers in the (2000) Western Conference finals,” Schauffler said. “And this was about one dude. Not a team. Like, I didn’t really care if Milwaukee wins it. I just wanted Dame to win it.

“And now, I don’t know if that will ever happen.”

(Photo of Troy Douglass, owner of Back to the Basket in Portland: Jason Quick / The Athletic)

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