Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard shut down, Jamal Crawford retires

Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard out for remainder of the season

Some recent NBA news broke pertaining to a current superstar and a former bucket-getter of the Portland Trail Blazers in Damian Lillard and Jamal Crawford respectively.

The Portland Trail Blazers recently announced that Damian Lillard has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2021-2022 NBA season. Lillard has been inactive since January after undergoing abdominal surgery and rehabbing ever since. Prior to the surgery and games missed as a result, Dame was averaging 24.0 points with 7.3 assists per game this season. The Blazers said in a statement,

"” He has progressed well through the reconditioning phase of his rehab protocol.”"

Hopefully, he will be ready for the start of training camp come October.

With Lillard’s deactivation, it’s worth monitoring to see if Anfernee Simons (tendinopathy in his left knee), Jusuf Nurkić (left foot plantar fasciitis), and Josh Hart (left knee patellar tendinopathy) will soon be joining Lillard, shut down for the season as well.

Former Portland Trail Blazers guard Jamal Crawford has retired

In other news, after a twenty-year career, former Blazer Jamal Crawford announced his retirement. Crawford, Seattle-area native, was drafted eighth-overall in the 2000 draft. He was a three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2010, 2014, 2016) and also accrued an NBA Teammate of the Year Award (2018).

For his career, he averaged 14.6 points and 3.4 assists per game. In 60 games with the Portland Trail Blazers, one of the shorter stops in his decorated career, he put up 14.0 points and 3.2 assists,

Crawford played his last game in 2020 with the Nets. At the time, he became the oldest player to ever score 50 points, on the final game of the regular season in 2019 with 51. He was also the first in the NBA to score 50 plus points with four different teams.

J-Crossover’s picturesque game will be missed, but hoopers can look forward to Damian Lillard’s anticipated return in the 2022-2023 NBA season.