PORTLAND, Ore. — It's a game many Portland Trail Blazers fans have had circled since the day Damian Lillard was traded in a blockbuster trade to the Milwaukee Bucks in September. It'll be the first game for Lillard in a place he called home for 11 seasons. The biggest difference for fans, will be seeing Dame in a jersey other than a Trail Blazers one.
"It's gonna be bittersweet, it's gonna be really bittersweet," said Pablo Herrera, administrator of the fan website Pinwheel Empire.
Since the day he was drafted with the sixth pick in the 2012 NBA draft, Damian Lillard immediately became a fan favorite.
"Dame's just brought the team so much success, so much loyalty over the years that it's hard not to cheer for him," said Trail Blazers fan Cole Parker.
Lillard gave Trail Blazers fans plenty to root for over the years. He sank buzzer beater after buzzer beater that sent the Trail Blazers deeper into the playoffs on two different occasions.
"He's clutch! We miss him very much!" a Trail Blazer fan told KGW before Monday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Lillard quickly cemented himself on the Mount Rushmore of Trail Blazer greats alongside Clyde Drexler and Bill Walton, but as time wore on, the thought of winning a title in Portland seemed like a distant dream and Lillard wanted out. In September, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Danny Marang, co-host of the Danny & Dusty show on 1080 AM The Fan, said he's talked to Lillard about coming back after getting traded.
"Discussion we've had back and forth is like, 'I wanna show out, I wanna win,'" Marang said of what Lillard told him. "(He) never wanted anything to go the way that it did."
When Lillard gets introduced on the floor, public address announcer Mark Mason said he hasn't decided how he'll introduce the former Blazers guard, but said he would just go with the flow and keep it respectful. He posted a poll to Twitter asking fans whether he should give Lillard special treatment or treat him like any other opposing player. As of Wednesday morning, with nearly 3,000 votes in, "special treatment" was winning with more than 93% of the vote.
Mason told KGW in an e-mail that no matter what he says, the crowd will get loud the second he introduces the 6-foot-3 guard from Weber State.
"I think we're gonna be really happy to see him. I think if there is some kind of tribute video or anything, there's gonna be a lot of tears shed. I think the cheers will overcrowd the boos we might hear," Herrera said.
Fans might not be the only ones getting a little emotional.
"He knows he's probably gonna be a puddle of mush for a pretty heavy part of that game," Marang said.
And if fans have any say in what comes once Dame's time in another uniform comes to an end, they have one request.
"We really hope someday you'll come back here on the Portland Trail Blazers," one little fan told KGW outside Moda Center. His sister chimed in, "Yeah, come play for the Blazers again!"