Lillard makes Portland return via 3-point shootout
Damian Lillard is apparently going to wear his Portland uniform again, in a most unexpected manner.
And he’ll have the Olympics as the television lead-in for his return.
Lillard—who has not played this season while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon—will participate in the three-point contest on All-Star on Saturday, the NBA announced.
Viewers won’t have to wait long to see Lillard’s return. All-Star on Saturday will lead off this year with the three-point contest, a major change from the norm and a move that could command big ratings—with NBC’s coverage of the event immediately following broadcasts from the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, which the network also airs.
In other words, NBC is going from skating, sliding and skiing to shooting.
Lillard is joining 2018 three-point contest champion Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns in the field, along with Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel, Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, Denver’s Jamal Murray, Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. and Miami’s Norman Powell.
If Lillard wins, he would join Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only three-time winners of the event, which will be held at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home in Inglewood, California.
It would be Lillard’s first time playing—or at least shooting—in front of fans since he rejoined Portland going into this season. Lillard got hurt last spring, while a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, who wound up waiving and stretching the remaining $113 million on his contract to make him a free agent and give him the opportunity to re-sign with his original NBA club.
He’s not the first three-point participant without a made three-pointer in that season: In the 1989 contest, the NBA invited Rimas Kurtinaitis of Lithuania to participate. Kurtinaitis never played in the NBA.
Lillard was the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Trail Blazers and spent 11 seasons with Portland before he was traded to Milwaukee just before the 2023-24 season. Lillard won back-to-back three-point contest titles in 2023 and 2024, before Miami’s Tyler Herro—who has missed most of this season because of injuries—won the event last season.
All-Star sub
Meanwhile, Houston’s Alperen Sengun was added to the roster for this season’s NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, being selected as a replacement pick for Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Sengun—who becomes Turkey’s first two-time All-Star, after also being picked last season—will take Gilgeous-Alexander’s place on the World team in the Feb. 15 event at the Los Angeles Clippers’ home in Inglewood, California.
There are two US teams in the event, one World team. The teams will play a round-robin tournament, then the top two teams will meet again in the All-Star final. All four of those games will last 12 minutes, or one standard NBA quarter.
Sengun is one of only two All-Stars from Turkey. Mehmet Okur is the other, getting his lone All-Star selection in 2007.
