Landon Buford
Six-time All-Damian Lillard recently shared that he feels “100% healthy” and as strong as ever after speaking with Orlando Sanchez of KGW Sports.
Lillard spent most of the 2021-2022 NBA season recovering from abdominal surgery, correcting a chronic wound that had afflicted her at a low level for years.
Orlando Sanchez posted a video on Twitter of the Blazer guard detailing his rehab regimen and how he will approach this upcoming season.
“I feel great. Even when, right after surgery, it was like I had surgery at 6 AM on January 13th and then 6 AM on January 14th I was literally doing rehab in Philly, doing yoga. It was aggressive. Even when I was a little uncomfortable, they were like, “Just do it.” And I’m one of those people, if that’s the instructions you’re giving me, I’m going to do it. And if something goes wrong, I’m going to tell you, but if this is what you say is going to work, let’s do it. And I went at it aggressive. And after I would say a month and a half, I started to feel a lot better. And I thought I was back. I was like, “A month and a half, I’m back. I don’t feel nothing, said Lillard.
“Man, I didn’t even ealize how bad it was. Because I had been dealing with it for four and a half years. And it was getting worse and worse, but I was still able to have 50 on a night. Or I was still able to move kind of well some nights. And it would be after the game, I would go home and I would have a bulge, over my pubic area, and it would be like a baseball was under there…that type of swelling. By the time I’d wake up, it would go down. And then the next day it would do it again.
I was just fighting through it. So to wake up every day and be able to work out, to do some conditioning, then go home and feel good and be strong and build myself back up from scratch. I haven’t just done rehab on my surgery. It’s been other things that I’ve been dealing with as well, where I’ve been able to correct those things and put a real plan together. And put a team of PT and strength and conditioning and basketball and speed and agility and sports science…put a team of people together where everything isn’t just hard, hard, hard. Today is a medium day, today is a light day, take this day off. So it’s gotten me to the point where I really feel as strong as I’ve ever felt. I feel healthy. 100% healthy. I feel strong.”
[H/T Dave Deckard of SB Nation for the transcript]
Lillard was recently on Instagram Live when found out that the Blazers won the Summer League Championship.
Oh, s***, they won it,” Lillard said after Watford flashed the trophy on the screen.
“They winning Summer League and this is what me and Ant are doing,” Lillard said.
“They won Summer League, and we are celebrating that you feeling me.”
The Trailblazers beat the Knicks 85-77 on Sunday to take home their second NBA Summer League championship. Portland, who previously won the title in 2018, is the first team in summer league history to receive championship rings.
As for Lillard, he recently agreed to a two-year extension through the 2026-27 season, worth a reported $225 million.
