Portland’s Lillard discusses surgery

During the Tokyo Olympics, when Damian Lillard’s abdominal injury flared up, Jrue Holiday suggested it was time for surgery.

Lillard finally took his fellow Olympian’s advice and had the procedure Jan. 13. The Trail Blazers’ star point guard spoke to reporters Saturday for the first time since the injury sidelined him Jan. 3.

Holiday, who currently plays for Milwaukee, had similar core surgery during the 2018-19 season. He and Lillard were teammates in Japan last summer on the gold medal-winning U.S. team. “He was the first person that pretty much confirmed that I needed to have surgery because I sat out of practice one day and I was like, ‘I can’t move’ and I was kind of just holding it. And he just started describing every single symptom,” Lillard said. “And he was like ‘I had it.’ ”

Lillard, a six-time All-star, averaged 24 points and 7.3 assists in 29 games this season for the Blazers. It was clear from the start that the injury, lower abdominal tendinopathy, was bothersome. “It was just one of those things where I’ve always had control over how I moved and everything, and it had reached a point where my body couldn’t do what my mind wanted it to do, and go places that I wanted it to go,” he said.

While the injury flared up in Tokyo, Lillard said he first felt the abdominal pain in 2015 and it had been gradually getting worse ever since.

The Blazers have struggled without Lillard. Under first-year coach Chauncey Billups, Portland was 19-26 and in 10th place in the Western Conference heading into Sunday night’s game at Toronto. Anfernee Simons has taken over as Portland’s point guard and has averaged 15.1 points per game. Portland was also playing for an extended period without Lillard’s backcourt teammate CJ Mccollum, who had a collapsed right lung before becoming a father for the first time. Mccollum recently returned.

There was no timeline for Lillard’s return, but he’s already been doing yoga. The team previously said he would be re-evaluated in six weeks. “I’m not in a rush,” he said. “My number one goal is to win a championship. I’ve got to be in the best form of myself to make that happen and to be a part of that.”