Good news for the Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard says he feels better than ever.
In an interview posted by Orlando Sanchez of KGW Sports, the six-time All-Star gave an update on his condition months after undergoing abdominal surgery. Not only did Lillard say he was healthy, but he also said he feels "as strong as I've ever felt."
"I was just fighting through it," Lillard said of his abdominal injury. "So, to wake up every day and be able to work out and then do some conditioning and go home and feel good and be strong and kind of 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'm able to correct those things and put a real plan together and put a team of [physical therapy] and strength and conditioning and basketball and speed and agility and sports science, put a team of people together where everything is not always 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 percent healthy. I feel strong."
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"I didn't realize how bad it was because I had been dealing with it for 4 1/2 years"
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) July 20, 2022
Damian Lillard says swelling was the size of a baseball after games. After ab surgery, he's been able to "build himself up from scratch"
"I really feel the strongest I've ever felt"#RipCity pic.twitter.com/BxYbIgbJye
Lillard was limited to 29 games during the 2021-22 season. He wasn't himself in the games in which he did appear, averaging his fewest points (24.0) since his third season in the league while shooting career-lows of 40.2 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from 3-point range.
The Trail Blazers struggled without Lillard. Portland finished the season with a 27-55 record and failed to make the NBA Playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.
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That hasn't prevented the Trail Blazers from being aggressive this offseason, though. In addition to re-signing Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic, they acquired Jerami Grant from the Pistons.
The Trail Blazers also made a big commitment to Lillard, agreeing to a two-year, $122 million extension.
