Damian Lillard's Season Appears To Be Over After It's Discovered That He Has A Blood Clot In His Right Calf

Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.

Damian Lillard to me on his diagnosis:“It’s unfortunate that something outside of my control would come up. Along with the Bucks’ medical staff, our priorities are to protect my health and safety. As much as I love basketball, I need to be there for my kids and my family. I’m grateful the Bucks acted quickly on this. They’ve been supportive and proactive throughout this process. I look forward to moving past this and continuing my career.”

Holy shit. Dame had missed the last 3 Bucks games with a calf injury, but you figure given where we are in the season and his age and the nature of that injury that the Bucks were rightfully being overly cautious. You can't screw around with calf injuries, as Bucks fans know, so Dame sitting made sense.

Unfortunately, it's not just a calf strain or calf soreness. If deep vein thrombosis sounds familiar, it's because this is the same thing that just ended Wemby's season last month

When it comes to blood clot issues, obviously, the last thing that matters is the basketball part. Just like with Wemby, you hope this is an isolated incident and everything ends up OK, but it's still a scary situation. One of those injuries/situations where we're talking about real life or death stuff in some cases, not just a sprained ankle. 

From the basketball side, it's a devastating blow to the Bucks. For starters, you hope this is something Dame can even come back from in the first place, since you'll remember this is what ultimately ended Chris Bosh's career. There are also cases where players deal with this issue and come back fine, so here's to hoping that's the case with Dame. In the immediate short term, it's a pretty big death blow to a Bucks team that was already on the ropes in the Eastern Conference. It became more and more of a reality that they may not even end up with home court to open the playoffs, and now they're going to have to navigate a playoff run without Dame? That's a brutal gut punch 10 games before a playoff run, no matter how you slice it. Especially since last year's Bucks run had its own season ending injuries to deal with. To get that in back to back years is a tough break and why winning a title is so damn hard. Above all else you need health and luck on your side.

Based on his statement, it sure sounds like he's done for the year, and as a basketball fan, it sucks. All injuries suck, especially this close to the playoffs and it's annoying that we can't just turn the injury sliders off. Hopefully we haven't seen Dame play his last game in the NBA, even if this does mean we won't see him again this season.