Life changed irrevocably for the Portland Trail Blazers on September 27th, 2023 when they traded All-Star point guard Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. The moment stands alongside Bill Walton’s free agency in 1979 and trading Clyde Drexler to the Houston Rockets in 1995 as the most earth-shattering personnel decisions in franchise history.
Lillard was not just a 20-point-per-game scorer. He was the heart of the Trail Blazers for more than a decade. He brought them out of the shadows of the failed Brandon Roy-Greg Oden era from the moment he joined the franchise in the 2012 NBA Draft.