Bucks star Damian Lillard will always be remembered for his historic run with the Trail Blazers. But when it comes to their fans, he may not be on the best of terms with them after recently calling them out on social media.
Trail Blazers fan:Â “When someone brings up how Dame isn’t doing well on the Bucks… Wish him well but he ain’t my dad.”
Damian Lillard:Â “Fake ass mfs.”
Lillard, 34, has fallen on hard times with the Milwaukee Bucks. This season, through the first 11 games, he’s averaging 25.3 points, 6.9 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game on 43.4% shooting. The Bucks are 12th in the East with a 5-9 record (1-6 on the road). Statistically, it’s one of the worst seasons of Lillard’s career and there are no signs of it getting better.
For most Trail Blazers fans, it’s a miserable experience to see Lillard struggling like this but some still harbor great resentment over how he left years earlier. Clearly, in the case of the fan in this interaction, they have moved on entirely from Lillard to focus on who remains with the Blazers.
Despite being the hero of the franchise for over a decade, things turned in the summer of 2023 when Lillard demanded a trade from the organization. It was against everything he claimed to have stood for and it was made worse by the fact that he only wanted a trade to the Heat.
After all that Damian Lillard has done for the franchise, he thought they would celebrate him forever and he expected them to stay loyal to him even after joining a different team. As he has come to find out, however, the fans are not so loyal anymore now that Damian decided to go a different way.
In truth, Trail Blazers fans see Lillard’s departure as the ultimate betrayal and you can’t blame them for that. He preached loyalty for years with the organization and was proud to represent the notoriously small-market franchise. So for him to throw all of that away in one summer was certainly a shock for Blazers fans and many of them have taken to disregarding Lillard’s existence entirely.
As an 8x All-Star and 7x All-NBA player, there is no question that Lillard is the greatest Trail Blazers star in NBA history. He brought a level of relevance and prosperity that the team hadn’t known for many years and he established a bond with those in the organization that will last a lifetime.
But after their recent falling out, Lillard’s relationship with the city and the fandom has completely tanked at a time when he needs the most support. As he endures a major slump with the Bucks, Lillard is getting heat from all corners right now and the only way out is to return to his superstar form.
If he can save the Bucks’ season, and become the guy he was in Portland, Lillard might win back over some of the fans and pave the way for an epic redemption arc. If not, it could be the beginning of the end of his NBA career.
