Damian Lillard Opens Up About 'Darkest Time' in His NBA Career After Achilles Injury

Damian Lillard told Andscape's Marc J. Spears he struggled with a sense of being in "limbo" when the Milwaukee Bucks waived him shortly after he ruptured his left Achilles tendon in the spring of 2025.

Lillard suffered the Achilles injury in his final game with the Bucks during the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

He was cut from the team three months later, then spent two and a half weeks as a free agent before he re-signed with the Portland Trail Blazers.

"The darkest day was when I got when I was hurt and got waived," Lillard told Spears. "It wasn't a matter of, 'Am I going to get an opportunity?' It was just like, it was a possibility and a thought of mine. 'Well, do I just sit the year out and not be on the team and just wait until next summer when I'm healthy, and then go and visit teams and just work out for them and whatever and try to figure it out from there?' What do you do?

"And that was probably the darkest time, because I didn't really know which way I wanted to go. I would say when I got waived, and it was kind of like that limbo, and I had never not been on the team. I had a stretch of time where I just wasn't on the team."

Lillard has previously spoken about being surprised about the Bucks' decision to waive him just two seasons after acquiring him from the Trail Blazers, with which Lillard had spent 11 seasons before requesting a trade in 2023.

He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jim Owczarski he had learned about the deal not through a conversation with the Bucks but via a social media post.

"I think that's the craziest part of it is I left here with four years on my deal and in my mind I was gonna be in Milwaukee the next four seasons at least," Lillard told Owczarski in July 2025. "And that was it. Things turn quickly from being hurt and then being waived unexpected and then obviously (Portland) coming as an aggressive suitor for me to come back."

The Bucks waived and stretched Lillard's former contract in order to sign Myles Turner as part of an ultimately failed bid to retain Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was traded to the Miami Heat in June.

Lillard sat out the entirety of last season amid his injury recovery. While Antetokounmpo prepares for his Heat debut, Lillard is getting ready to officially make his return to the Blazers Wednesday night against the visiting Phoenix Suns.