It's certainly never easy for a professional athlete to face off against a team he or she used to play for. It's even harder when the player truly loved their old team. Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard is experiencing that nostalgia as he gets prepared to face off with his old team, the Portland Trail Blazers, on Sunday for the first time since he left.

“My time in Portland was great, bro, I loved it, the organization, the people I worked with every day,” Lillard said, per The Player's Tribune.

Lillard spent more than a decade in Portland, and was the face of the franchise for many years. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star with the Blazers, as well as the league's Rookie of the Year in 2013. But his time with the Blazers ended in frustration, as Lillard ended up playing in fewer games his last few seasons in Portland. The team was also never able to make it to the NBA Finals with Lillard as its point guard. The team did win division titles in 2015 and 2018 with Lillard, but never a Western Conference title.

Lillard is now in his first season with the Milwaukee Bucks and preparing to play Portland for the first time. Lillard is having a great season for the Bucks, averaging more than 25 points a game. The veteran guard is also averaging more than 6 assists a game, and Milwaukee is 11-5 on the season. It certainly seems that a change has done a lot of good for Lillard.

Portland certainly misses the veteran guard. The Blazers are struggling this year, with a 4-11 mark. The team had lost 8 games in a row before defeating Utah last week, 121-105. Portland will try to make it two in a row when the team faces off against their former teammate on Sunday.

Portland and Milwaukee tip off Sunday at 3:30 Eastern.