Damian Lillard Shares Hilarious Introduction to Former Knicks Center

Unlike Rudolph, former New York Knicks center Jericho Sims is more than welcome to join in reindeer games.

Sims was part of the Knicks' sole transaction at the trade deadline as he was sent to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for reserve guard Delon Wright. The fourth-year man has found a role as the Bucks' primary backup center behind Brook Lopez and has averaged 5.3 rebounds in over 15 minutes a game in a dozen appearances to date.

Sims certainly appears to leaving an impression on his new teammates, including Bucks All-Star Damian Lillard, who stated that an off-court incident with the ex-Knick helped develop some chemistry for the stretch run.

"We were both lifting at the same time it was just us and I was like 'man, dude, do you ever talk?'" Lillard recalled in video from Lily Zhao of WKRC. "He just started smiling and he was like 'yeah, I do.'"

#Bucks Damian Lillard on his growing relationship with Jericho Sims:

"I asked him like, what do you go by? I'm not about to be calling you Jericho every time I call your name, and he was like you know, J Rod, Jumpman and I was like, I will never call you Jumpman..." 😂 pic.twitter.com/R7wrqpLYFA
— Lily Zhao (@LilySZhao) March 14, 2025

Lillard was eager to give his new teammate a nickname, reasoning that he wasn't "calling [him] Jericho every time." Sims offered a plethora of options but Lillard immediately drew some humorous boundaries.

"He was like J-Rod, Jumpman," Lillard recalled in Zhao's video. "I was like I will never call you Jumpman, there's only one Jumpman that I'm going to acknowledge as Jumpman and we laughed about it. That was kind of like the icebreaker. From then on, I've just been in consistent conversations with him in practice, in games, in the locker room, stuff like that."

The silent yet mutual understanding that only the legendary Michael Jordan could be "Jumpman" was the start of a new friendship that has helped propel the Bucks (37-28) forward. Following Wednesday's 126-106 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee is 8-4 with Sims in the lineup and 5-1 when he plays at least 15 minutes.

Beyond the apparent kinship established with Lillard, the Bucks have come to enjoy Sims' on-floor contributions, which have been particularly clutch amidst the 25-game suspension for fellow former Knick Bobby Portis.

"Jericho has just some innate stuff that no one else can do," Lopez said of his new understudy, per Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He can guard one through five. He's athletic. He's already a great screen setter, setting screens at halfcourt for Dame and Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. Stuff like that makes a big difference.”

Sims and the Bucks sit just behind the Knicks on the Eastern Conference leaderboard in fourth place and are five games back with one more meeting scheduled for March 28. In the meantime, Milwaukee hosts the Indiana Pacers on Saturday at Fiserv Forum (8 p.m. ET, FanDuel Sports Wisconsin).

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