I've been attending Trail Blazer games since I moved here in 1989, and I've seen some rather unusual stuff: game winning shots, Rasheed trying to kill a referee, playoff games, the 2001 collapse in LA from the Rose Garden, retirement ceremonies, and lots of great games. But nothing I had seen prepared me for what I saw last night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder came to town last night, but you might remember them as the former Seattle Supersonics. The team was unceremoniously moved to Oklahoma last year by their owner, Clay Bennett, who bought the team in 2006 from Howard Schultz. Schultz was frustrated at the lack of movement on a new arena in Seattle, despite the fact that Key Arena was refurbished back in 1995 with help from the city. Schultz wanted Bennett to keep the team in Seattle, and he promised he would make an effort to keep them there. Schultz had asked for a $200 million capital infusion to fix Key Arena, so Bennett, after buying the team, promptly asked for $500 million for a brand new area. I love businessmen when they use new math. Bennett finally applied to move the team last year after failed attempts to get money, and so the city of Seattle sued to keep the team there. Despite having a pretty good case, the city finally settled for $45 million dollars with the promise to keep the team history and colors, and also receive extra funds if the city could secure additional financing from the state of Washington by the end of 2009. The legislature will be taking up that task sometime in the next few months while they are in session, so the fate of the money should be known by the time the Thunder make their second appearance in the Rose Garden on April 13th.
But while there's plenty of blame to throw about amongst the players above, you can add the state government, who thought the whole idea of paying for an arena was stupid, the city council, who didn't seem to have an idea of what they wanted to do, and David Stern, the NBA commissioner, who let the whole thing happen. Stern might have felt some obligation to Bennett, who worked with the New Orleans Hornets when they played in OK City when their city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, so he wanted to get a team there. But really, the fact that you could just allow a team with over 40 years of history to just walk away like that was a joke, and I blame all of the parties involved here. It's not that I lose any sleep over the issue, but I'm mad that not only did the NBA allow our closest rival to walk away, but now we lost the only team in our division that plays in the same time zone, which no other team has to deal with. Every other division has at least 2 teams that play in the same time zone, except for the Northwest division. Denver and Utah are in the mountain zone, OK City and Minnesota are in the Central. Gee, you'd think there was a conspiracy here.
But add to this little mix of stuff was the fact that Portland had visited OK City last Friday, and got thumped. The Thunder ran them all over the court, and it was only a good fourth quarter that made the result respectable. So, there was a bit of revenge on the Trail Blazer's mind for Wednesday's game. And then, as I noted in my blog on Tuesday, various Seattle fans were coming down to Portland to cheer for the game, and show support for Nate McMillan and try to bring the NBA back to Seattle, even asking for the fans to cheer for the Sonics at points. I didn't support the idea one bit, because while I respect rivals, I don't cheer for them under any circumstances, but if you could pull this off, why not give it a try? Portland is by far one of the more polite NBA cities, often clapping for specific players or teams.
When girl and I got to the arena, the place was full of green and gold Sonics gear. The Oregonian did a good job of documenting the fans and displays during the game, while even Yahoo Sports did a nice article about the displaced fans, and what they plan on doing the next time the Thunder come to town. Seriously, I can imagine being very upset if my team was taken away like it was, and then they travel to the nearest city and acted like nothing happened. These players were guys they had cheered on for many years, and suddenly, they are wearing strange uniforms and answering to a different team name. It would be a bit disconcerting, but at the same point, the NBA proved one thing in letting the Sonics move - it's about the money. And as much as Trail Blazer fans may not want to admit it, we came very close to losing our team before the recent emergence when Paul Allen said our market was "broken" and he put the team up for sale after declaring bankruptcy to try and get a better deal on his arena debt. We could have been in the same boat as Sonics fans, but along came the better days, and now we are selling out like crazy.
The place was loud and crazy, much like a playoff atmosphere, and I saw a lot of pockets of green and gold that weren't Ducks. As we settled into our seats, the Thunder was booed when they came out for warmups, and got more boos during player introductions. I would have thought we were playing a fierce rival, but then I remembered that really we are, since many of these players were in Seattle just last year. Before the introductions, though, there was some comedy with the ball relay, a marketing tool that the Trail Blazers do before the game to pass the game ball from the top of the arena to the floor, and then a kid presents the ball to the referee before the tip. Well, the sections 307, 207, and 104 took it upon themselves to pass the ball in all sorts of directions but in the right one, as the ball went left, right, back up, one person down, and so on. It even paused for pictures with some fans, and it only made it to the floor about a minute before the anthem because a Trail Blazers stunt girl stole it from a fan to bring it down. The kids walked up to hand the ball over, they had their pictures taken, but then the official, realizing it was a compressed time, said a few things to the kids and then helped the Stunt Team get the kids over to the sidelines as the arena lights dimmed. Look, I like the ball relay, but seriously, it's up to the fans to keep it moving and not cause delays, plus you are depriving a kid of the moment to be on the floor with the ball. Seriously, I felt bad for the kids, but it was nice to see the official take a moment to help out.
The game itself was pretty uneventful in the first half, as the Sonics chant never really got going as expected, and the Thunder matched the Trail Blazers in hustle and rebounds. While we shot the ball better from the floor, the Thunder shot near perfect from the free throw line, so the score was close at the half. Brandon Roy had some nice plays, and Greg Oden had a few key moves, but really, we couldn't match their intensity. One of the biggest cheers was at the half for a junior basketball game, where an 8th grader put up a serious NBA length 3 point shot and drilled it. And as the third quarter went on, the game was still close until about midway, when Oden finally started controlling the boards, and we started stringing made shots together. The end sequence of the third quarter went from us having a 4 point lead to almost 10 points in about 30 seconds, and we stretched the lead to nearly 20 in the 4th quarter, and won by 14 1o6 to 92.
I know some people are concerned that we still have our best players on the court at the end of a game that we apparently had under control with 4 minutes left, but I saw OK City put four guards in the game and they were really playing with quickness and started hitting some shots that weren't falling in the second and third quarters for them. They never got closer than 12 points in the fourth, but I felt that OK City was only a small run away from getting back in the game, and with our offensive struggles, I think it's important to have our key guys out there keeping things flowing. When we don't have Roy and Aldridge on the court, the offense really becomes watching Travis try and create things, which does work sometimes but other times not so much. We're still a young team, and we're getting better, by really winning games that we should.
And as I left the arena, I watched the Sonics fans as they help up signs and tried to cheer. You heard them at points, but the game operations went out of their way to avoid showing any Sonics signs that used their team name directly. It was almost as if the NBA and the Trail Blazers wanted everyone to forget the Sonics ever existed. But there were plenty of green and gold reminders throughout the arena, reminding folks of what used to be, and what they hope might be again. It would be nice for them to have a team, especially to give us a close rival again. But I also think that bringing back a team would validate what many fans in the arena knew - Seattle is a fabulous NBA market and the fans had their team stolen from them in broad daylight. Here's hoping that karma works to get them back in the NBA and restore the Pacific Northwest rivalry to the NBA.
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Monday, November 3, 2008
Random November Thoughts
The blog has been getting a bit dusty lately, but that's for a lot of good reasons. It's hard to juggle a new marriage, work, house details, social obligations, playing soccer twice a week, and then try to find time to go to the gym and keep up on the television shows I worship. Compound that with girl and I's idea of hosting Halloween here at our house, and you can see why things have been piled up. I know a lot of bloggers use shorter entries and more frequent posts to break things up, but I tend to write longer topics and when the inspiration hits me. And lately, the inspiration has been here, it's just finding time.
And really, doing things you enjoy doing it should be easy to find time, but as with my last entry, that isn't always the case. I love going to the gym, but it suffers at the hands of other obligations. Much like this blog suffers from surfing the web, catching up on emails from friends, and from the fact that I spend 8 hours on a computer at work so of course, it's time to come home and spend 3 to 4 more hours in front of a box here. But big events have been piling up, and I felt it's time to weigh in a little bit on them.
The world isn't coming to an end, but if you listen to a lot of Trail Blazer fans, it certainly seems that way. Greg Oden injured himself in last week's opener versus the Fakers in LA, and it seems like people are calling him everything from a bust to the next Sam Bowie to fine china. I'm not ready to call him a bust, but admittedly, the injury prone tag is going to take some time to go away from him. It's been 18 months of an NBA career and so far, it's been a major knee surgery, rehab, ankle issues in practice, then 13 minutes in a game and then he rolls the ankle stepping on another player's shoes. Big guys tend to get hurt because of their natural position of rebounding, blocking, and taking abuse from other team's big guys, and so Oden isn't really an exception here. What is an exception is expecting this guy to dominate the world from his first game then be upset when he's banged up. The expectations should be more measured, as we have a key part in the overall cog of the Trail Blazers, not the end all guy who will lead us to the NBA title. Seriously, it's time to ratchet things down a bit, and be realistic. Yes, he's a number 1 pick, but 13 minutes then an injury doesn't label him a bust.
Huskyville is dealing with another coaching situation, as Tye Willingham is resigning at the end of the year with a little help from his team currently being on the longest losing streak in College Football right now. The Huskies are terrible in all facets of the game, but as with every other situation, Tye is handling the issues with class. He's not throwing players or the school under the bus, but simply trying to manage expectations as best as he can, which is hard when your team is 0 and 7 and staring at the possibility of another win-less season. Willingham is a great coach, and about as fun to listen to during interviews as Clyde Drexler, or as I called him Captain Cliche'. Clyde would talk a lot, but say a lot without really saying anything, while Willingham takes a cerebral slant on the same approach by talking a bit but not saying anything at all. The problem is that boosters and fans still hold a lot of weight in college football, and if they aren't happy, they make havoc for the schools, and Willingham never really said much about what was going wrong but a lot of vague generalities. I can't tell you why the largest college in Washington can't draw competitive talent for football, but when Oregon State is doing better than you consistently while playing in Corvallis, you have to raise your eyebrow. Mike Riley does a great job for the Beavers, but imagine what he could do with the facilities and money that is available up north. He'll get asked to go up there, and politely decline because he's happy where he is, and he's the guy for OSU. Who would want the Husky job, I have no clue...
Which brings us to the entire Seattle sports market right now, as today it was announced that Seattle is considered part of Portland's NBA market now, and based on Comcast's contract with the team, Trail Blazer games will be blacked out in Seattle unless you have Comcast. Gee, way to appeal to the NBA fans up there if you have any left after their team was stolen. Look, I know what the evidence says and I know what people are saying about the Sonics and it couldn't have happened to a nicer city, but seriously, I worry for the future of the league with David Stern at the helm. It's all about power, influence and money, and while he talks about bringing the NBA to China and England, teams in the US are struggling to keep revenue streams flowing, and then he allows a 39 year old franchise to essentially walk for nothing because the city didn't want to help with any more money for a facility. I respect the Seattle-Portland rivalry a lot, and I already have issues with the regionalization of the Mariners and Seahawks as they are repeatedly shoved down sports fans' throats in Oregon because we don't have NFL and MLB, so it's a little poetic justice to see the same thing happen to them up north by the NBA, but seriously, it shouldn't have come to this. And anyone who really thinks their franchise is totally secure really should shudder to think how easily that team was moved to Oklahoma.
The MLS to Portland bandwagon has slowed a bit, not because of the efforts, but simply we are in the evaluation period as Portland is among 7 cities vying for 2 teams for the 2011 MLS season. I like our chances a lot for one of the two teams, but as with anything else lately, it's all about timing. Right now, the economic world is still reeling from a credit crunch and markets having issues, and so taking on more debt, even for a city our size, is something that all sides need to be thinking about. But the amount being asked for and the potential return make the risk minimal, and the team's owners are committed to the long term future of MLS in Portland in addition to giving Triple A baseball a new home as well. It's a great plan, and one that I think everyone should consider and support. But with everything going on election wise plus the economics, I can understand some skittishness. But once you view the repayment schedule, the figures and facts, it's a win for everyone. And unlike other things, there won't be a lot of annoying political ads to distract you from the real issues going on.
Finally, please vote tomorrow. I do care who you vote for, but in my mind, exercising the vote is the most important thing citizens can do. Do your research, and make your voice count by voting. Oregon makes it easy with vote by mail, but I found myself spending about 2 hours researching issues on the web, and feeling like I'd done my civic duty. Tomorrow, we make history, and hopefully we can see the change that everyone seems to be craving right now. I'll keep my fingers crossed and the lights on for you...
And really, doing things you enjoy doing it should be easy to find time, but as with my last entry, that isn't always the case. I love going to the gym, but it suffers at the hands of other obligations. Much like this blog suffers from surfing the web, catching up on emails from friends, and from the fact that I spend 8 hours on a computer at work so of course, it's time to come home and spend 3 to 4 more hours in front of a box here. But big events have been piling up, and I felt it's time to weigh in a little bit on them.
The world isn't coming to an end, but if you listen to a lot of Trail Blazer fans, it certainly seems that way. Greg Oden injured himself in last week's opener versus the Fakers in LA, and it seems like people are calling him everything from a bust to the next Sam Bowie to fine china. I'm not ready to call him a bust, but admittedly, the injury prone tag is going to take some time to go away from him. It's been 18 months of an NBA career and so far, it's been a major knee surgery, rehab, ankle issues in practice, then 13 minutes in a game and then he rolls the ankle stepping on another player's shoes. Big guys tend to get hurt because of their natural position of rebounding, blocking, and taking abuse from other team's big guys, and so Oden isn't really an exception here. What is an exception is expecting this guy to dominate the world from his first game then be upset when he's banged up. The expectations should be more measured, as we have a key part in the overall cog of the Trail Blazers, not the end all guy who will lead us to the NBA title. Seriously, it's time to ratchet things down a bit, and be realistic. Yes, he's a number 1 pick, but 13 minutes then an injury doesn't label him a bust.
Huskyville is dealing with another coaching situation, as Tye Willingham is resigning at the end of the year with a little help from his team currently being on the longest losing streak in College Football right now. The Huskies are terrible in all facets of the game, but as with every other situation, Tye is handling the issues with class. He's not throwing players or the school under the bus, but simply trying to manage expectations as best as he can, which is hard when your team is 0 and 7 and staring at the possibility of another win-less season. Willingham is a great coach, and about as fun to listen to during interviews as Clyde Drexler, or as I called him Captain Cliche'. Clyde would talk a lot, but say a lot without really saying anything, while Willingham takes a cerebral slant on the same approach by talking a bit but not saying anything at all. The problem is that boosters and fans still hold a lot of weight in college football, and if they aren't happy, they make havoc for the schools, and Willingham never really said much about what was going wrong but a lot of vague generalities. I can't tell you why the largest college in Washington can't draw competitive talent for football, but when Oregon State is doing better than you consistently while playing in Corvallis, you have to raise your eyebrow. Mike Riley does a great job for the Beavers, but imagine what he could do with the facilities and money that is available up north. He'll get asked to go up there, and politely decline because he's happy where he is, and he's the guy for OSU. Who would want the Husky job, I have no clue...
Which brings us to the entire Seattle sports market right now, as today it was announced that Seattle is considered part of Portland's NBA market now, and based on Comcast's contract with the team, Trail Blazer games will be blacked out in Seattle unless you have Comcast. Gee, way to appeal to the NBA fans up there if you have any left after their team was stolen. Look, I know what the evidence says and I know what people are saying about the Sonics and it couldn't have happened to a nicer city, but seriously, I worry for the future of the league with David Stern at the helm. It's all about power, influence and money, and while he talks about bringing the NBA to China and England, teams in the US are struggling to keep revenue streams flowing, and then he allows a 39 year old franchise to essentially walk for nothing because the city didn't want to help with any more money for a facility. I respect the Seattle-Portland rivalry a lot, and I already have issues with the regionalization of the Mariners and Seahawks as they are repeatedly shoved down sports fans' throats in Oregon because we don't have NFL and MLB, so it's a little poetic justice to see the same thing happen to them up north by the NBA, but seriously, it shouldn't have come to this. And anyone who really thinks their franchise is totally secure really should shudder to think how easily that team was moved to Oklahoma.
The MLS to Portland bandwagon has slowed a bit, not because of the efforts, but simply we are in the evaluation period as Portland is among 7 cities vying for 2 teams for the 2011 MLS season. I like our chances a lot for one of the two teams, but as with anything else lately, it's all about timing. Right now, the economic world is still reeling from a credit crunch and markets having issues, and so taking on more debt, even for a city our size, is something that all sides need to be thinking about. But the amount being asked for and the potential return make the risk minimal, and the team's owners are committed to the long term future of MLS in Portland in addition to giving Triple A baseball a new home as well. It's a great plan, and one that I think everyone should consider and support. But with everything going on election wise plus the economics, I can understand some skittishness. But once you view the repayment schedule, the figures and facts, it's a win for everyone. And unlike other things, there won't be a lot of annoying political ads to distract you from the real issues going on.
Finally, please vote tomorrow. I do care who you vote for, but in my mind, exercising the vote is the most important thing citizens can do. Do your research, and make your voice count by voting. Oregon makes it easy with vote by mail, but I found myself spending about 2 hours researching issues on the web, and feeling like I'd done my civic duty. Tomorrow, we make history, and hopefully we can see the change that everyone seems to be craving right now. I'll keep my fingers crossed and the lights on for you...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Everyone Needs to Take a Chill Pill...Except for Our Friends Up North
I have rather been enjoying the new sports station in town, 95.5 The Game. It's nice to have sports on the FM dial, and they've actually started to talk about more interesting stuff than 9 straight days of "What would you do if you were the Trail Blazers GM?" as the main topic. I get that we have a rather tough sports market, with one major sports team (NBA's Trail Blazers), a professional team in a lower division (USL's Timbers), two minor league teams (WHL's Winterhawks and PCL's Beavers), two state schools within two hours of Portland (U of O, OSU) and two colleges within town that draw some attention (Portland State, Univ of Portland) as your choices of teams to follow and talk about. The Trail Blazers dominate the airwaves and talk, simply because they are the big game in town. And the team is actually expected to do well this year, with new players coming on board, so the expectations are higher than they've been for a while.
But it's these expectations that are really becoming a source of frustation for myself. I get that this town loves this team, and we have some great new players coming in (Oden, Fernandez, Bayliss) to the mix of guys that finished 41 and 41 last year, and everyone at this point is relatively healthy with only a few minor injuries that are keeping some players from camp. Greg Oden has the potential to be a dominating center in the NBA for years to come, but so far, he's trying to recover from his micro fracture knee surgery and he's dealing with a tender ankle from an injury the past few days. When he rolled his ankle in practice, Coach McMillan, Oden and Kevin Pritchard, the GM of the team, all said, "He's fine, stop worrying", but yet we all are wondering what's going on and will this guy stay healthy. When you're the top game in town, everything about you becomes that much more exaggerated, and even things like a simple rolled ankle become the topic of conversation for hours and hours.
I get the team is important, and we all want them to do well. It's easy to sit here and think the team is still a bit snake bit, especially after getting the number one pick in 2007 only to see Oden get injured, but really the situation is what it is. Guys get banged up all the time, and the surgery that Oden has takes about a year just to get back to playing and moving more fluidly. I understand the team wanting to be cautious, but I think that the Trail Blazer fans need to exercise the same caution as well. It's not the end of the world if Oden is slow in rejoining the team, we still have a talented core that will get better with more experience and a deeper bench. We'll be in the hunt for the playoffs, and Oden just makes us that much more dangerous, but right now, it's the preseason and last time I checked, noboby wins a title simply because of what they did in the preseason.
The other recent topic is the problems that the Seattle sports market have been having, with the NBA Sonics leaving town for Oklahoma, the Mariners having the second worst record in MLB, the Seahawks struggling early, the Huskies and Cougars being collectively terrible, and MLS still a year away from town. There's nothing really positive of note, with the exception of the WNBA Storm that recently made a playoff run, and so there's the question of what happens to a town's sport reputation when the teams there collectively are terrible? I have looked back on my most recent notes and I can't recall any city experiencing anything like this, where you have no real distraction in sports. And let's face it, in our world of sound bite politics, economic woes, wars in the world, global warming about, and bad things happening around, sports can provide a true diversion from the real problems of the world.
The question is really should we in Portland care about these problems, especially since the Pacific Northwest is thought of as a region and the problems there might make folks think sports here is collectively bad. It doesn't help matters when two Seattle teams aggressively market their teams down here due to no close competition (Mariners, Seahawks), and television spends lots of time feeding their games here all the time, so they are thought of as regional teams. The new MLS team is also trying this approach to persuade soccer fans to travel up north. The thought from sports radio is that we should be concerned because of association and reputation of the Pacific Northwest matters, so we should worry.
Honestly, I couldn't disagree more with that thought. While the Trail Blazers were the laughing stock of the NBA, I didn't see a lot of Sonics fans worried about association, but rather glad their team wasn't this embarrassing. I get frustrated at sports fans from other areas assuming that just because I live near Seattle, I follow their teams out of loyalty. I have a different love for my NFL fix, and it's because of my grandmother that I follow the Broncos to this day. I follow the Mariners out of my general interest of baseball, but I'm more inclined to follow the Padres or Giants because of their farm teams around. People in Seattle don't think twice about whether their town's reputation reflects on Portland or any of their neighbors, as a matter of fact, many NBA fans that are sad at losing the Sonics have purposely said they won't follow the Trail Blazers even though the team is close by out of principle because the team is in Portland.
I get that sports fans out of the region tend to lump our cities together, and don't realize there has been quite a bit of rivalry between Seattle and Portland over the years, which carries over to matches with Winterhawks - Thunderbird, Timbers - Sounders, Ducks - Huskies, Beavers - Huskies, etc. Fans may be cordial to each other in some respects, but there is some dislike between cities. Seattle thinks of themselves as the grand jewel of the Northwest, center of commerce, trade and a large focal point, and because of it's somewhat trendy nature, Seattlites tend to think highly of their town. And of course, Portland wants to copy us in every way, because secretly they want to be just like us. Portland, on the other hand, wants so badly to be taken seriously on it's own, we try to do weird and quirky things to stand out, yet secretly we want to be accepted as a big city with things to be proud of in as normal of a way as possible. Portland wants to be hip and trendy, but do it on its own terms. And some of the trendiness might filter down from up north.
I think it's great that we have a bit of a rivalry between our cities, and quite frankly because of that rivalry, I don't really care what happens up north. I didn't want to see the Sonics leave, but honestly, none of the key players in the situation really tried hard to keep them there. If anything, I'm more upset that my Trail Blazers have to travel more because of not having a close rival anymore because of the situation, but we'll make the best of this situation and of any situation where we compare ourselves to Seattle. Because as much as Seattle wants to be trendy and hip and cosmopolitan, they want to be those things plus friendly and engaging, which is what Portland has already. I've never been in such a welcoming and friendly city, vibrant and full of energy, and willing to do things here on our own terms. I think our reputation will continue to grow and prosper, and whatever problems are happening up north will eventually cycle out or people will just stop caring about it and it won't be one of the great diversions. Just keep doing what you do, Portland, we're just fine the way we are.
But it's these expectations that are really becoming a source of frustation for myself. I get that this town loves this team, and we have some great new players coming in (Oden, Fernandez, Bayliss) to the mix of guys that finished 41 and 41 last year, and everyone at this point is relatively healthy with only a few minor injuries that are keeping some players from camp. Greg Oden has the potential to be a dominating center in the NBA for years to come, but so far, he's trying to recover from his micro fracture knee surgery and he's dealing with a tender ankle from an injury the past few days. When he rolled his ankle in practice, Coach McMillan, Oden and Kevin Pritchard, the GM of the team, all said, "He's fine, stop worrying", but yet we all are wondering what's going on and will this guy stay healthy. When you're the top game in town, everything about you becomes that much more exaggerated, and even things like a simple rolled ankle become the topic of conversation for hours and hours.
I get the team is important, and we all want them to do well. It's easy to sit here and think the team is still a bit snake bit, especially after getting the number one pick in 2007 only to see Oden get injured, but really the situation is what it is. Guys get banged up all the time, and the surgery that Oden has takes about a year just to get back to playing and moving more fluidly. I understand the team wanting to be cautious, but I think that the Trail Blazer fans need to exercise the same caution as well. It's not the end of the world if Oden is slow in rejoining the team, we still have a talented core that will get better with more experience and a deeper bench. We'll be in the hunt for the playoffs, and Oden just makes us that much more dangerous, but right now, it's the preseason and last time I checked, noboby wins a title simply because of what they did in the preseason.
The other recent topic is the problems that the Seattle sports market have been having, with the NBA Sonics leaving town for Oklahoma, the Mariners having the second worst record in MLB, the Seahawks struggling early, the Huskies and Cougars being collectively terrible, and MLS still a year away from town. There's nothing really positive of note, with the exception of the WNBA Storm that recently made a playoff run, and so there's the question of what happens to a town's sport reputation when the teams there collectively are terrible? I have looked back on my most recent notes and I can't recall any city experiencing anything like this, where you have no real distraction in sports. And let's face it, in our world of sound bite politics, economic woes, wars in the world, global warming about, and bad things happening around, sports can provide a true diversion from the real problems of the world.
The question is really should we in Portland care about these problems, especially since the Pacific Northwest is thought of as a region and the problems there might make folks think sports here is collectively bad. It doesn't help matters when two Seattle teams aggressively market their teams down here due to no close competition (Mariners, Seahawks), and television spends lots of time feeding their games here all the time, so they are thought of as regional teams. The new MLS team is also trying this approach to persuade soccer fans to travel up north. The thought from sports radio is that we should be concerned because of association and reputation of the Pacific Northwest matters, so we should worry.
Honestly, I couldn't disagree more with that thought. While the Trail Blazers were the laughing stock of the NBA, I didn't see a lot of Sonics fans worried about association, but rather glad their team wasn't this embarrassing. I get frustrated at sports fans from other areas assuming that just because I live near Seattle, I follow their teams out of loyalty. I have a different love for my NFL fix, and it's because of my grandmother that I follow the Broncos to this day. I follow the Mariners out of my general interest of baseball, but I'm more inclined to follow the Padres or Giants because of their farm teams around. People in Seattle don't think twice about whether their town's reputation reflects on Portland or any of their neighbors, as a matter of fact, many NBA fans that are sad at losing the Sonics have purposely said they won't follow the Trail Blazers even though the team is close by out of principle because the team is in Portland.
I get that sports fans out of the region tend to lump our cities together, and don't realize there has been quite a bit of rivalry between Seattle and Portland over the years, which carries over to matches with Winterhawks - Thunderbird, Timbers - Sounders, Ducks - Huskies, Beavers - Huskies, etc. Fans may be cordial to each other in some respects, but there is some dislike between cities. Seattle thinks of themselves as the grand jewel of the Northwest, center of commerce, trade and a large focal point, and because of it's somewhat trendy nature, Seattlites tend to think highly of their town. And of course, Portland wants to copy us in every way, because secretly they want to be just like us. Portland, on the other hand, wants so badly to be taken seriously on it's own, we try to do weird and quirky things to stand out, yet secretly we want to be accepted as a big city with things to be proud of in as normal of a way as possible. Portland wants to be hip and trendy, but do it on its own terms. And some of the trendiness might filter down from up north.
I think it's great that we have a bit of a rivalry between our cities, and quite frankly because of that rivalry, I don't really care what happens up north. I didn't want to see the Sonics leave, but honestly, none of the key players in the situation really tried hard to keep them there. If anything, I'm more upset that my Trail Blazers have to travel more because of not having a close rival anymore because of the situation, but we'll make the best of this situation and of any situation where we compare ourselves to Seattle. Because as much as Seattle wants to be trendy and hip and cosmopolitan, they want to be those things plus friendly and engaging, which is what Portland has already. I've never been in such a welcoming and friendly city, vibrant and full of energy, and willing to do things here on our own terms. I think our reputation will continue to grow and prosper, and whatever problems are happening up north will eventually cycle out or people will just stop caring about it and it won't be one of the great diversions. Just keep doing what you do, Portland, we're just fine the way we are.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Respect - Sometimes It's Earned
I usually read John Canzano's column that is published in the Oregonian a few times per week. Sometimes I find myself agreeing with him, but most of the time I am left to wonder at some of the positions he takes and defends. I realize that some columnists are in the game to rile people up, and if that's the case, this guy does a good job of that. But sometimes he hits upon a key point like in his column today.
The Portland Trail Blazers are 23 and 15 after their game versus the Boston Celtics tonight, who hold the best record in the NBA at 31 wins and 6 losses. The Celtics have three great players, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, easily some of the best talent collected on a team and these guys are on their way to the Hall of Fame at some point. The young Trail Blazers could have walked in there and been intimidated and lost, and for the first few minutes of the game, it looked like they were overwhelmed a bit. But when shots started falling and the team made a few defensive stops in the second quarter, they found their game and went up by 9. They lead at the half, and kept things going until Ray Allen finally got heated up and the Celtics' aggressive play combined with some unusual official calls, the team finally succumbed and lost by 10. The game was much closer than the score indicates, but that probably won't be the story tomorrow. Instead of a team that has surpassed a lot of expectations and doing things not expected of a team this young, the stories will probably focus on the Celtics getting back on track after losing two games.
It's sad really, and Canzano makes a very valid point here. The Trail Blazers are absolutely though highly of by the NBA and some of the writers that follow the team, but they aren't respected very much and are still thought of as "over their head". I mean when sportswriters or other NBA media folks refer to Bo Outlaw for Travis Outlaw, LeMarcus for LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Olden for Greg Oden, it slaps in the face of disrespect here. Most media places have fact checkers in place, but to make fundamental mistakes like this doesn't make sense unless you don't respect what this team is doing.
I can see why they might be saying that. We don't have a true All Star on the team, even though Brandon Roy should be on the team. His numbers don't leap off the page, he just leads by making others better which often doesn't show up in the stats page. LaMarcus is getting better and better with each game, showing great defensive presence and an ability to hit shots from all over the court. Steve Blake, Jarrett Jack, Sergio Rodriguez and James Jones have all played integral roles making outside shots, key rebounds, and making great passes. Martell Webster has grown up this year, going from a timid outside shooter to a truly complimentary small forward. And Joel Pryzbilla, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz have manned the middle, playing tough defense and getting key rebounds as needed. None of these guys is a true NBA household name, you don't see their sneaker ads on TV, you don't have NBA commentators blathering on about how good they are all the time, and playing on the West Coast means most games out here are done while the East Coast sleeps.
The thing is that the team is great because of the sum of their parts. Yes, no one individually in that group strikes you as amazing, but put the collection together, let them play hard and help each other along, and behold - great things happen. Guys step up as needed, hitting game winning shots, making key defensive stops, scoring when other players are down, it ends up being a true team effort. And if that doesn't scream respect, I don't know what does.
But too many people think respect means doing things flashy or humiliating your opponent to make yourself look better. It's hard for me to watch some of the so called great NBA players, because it's all about what they do to make themselves look better and pad their own statistics. Kobe Bryant may be a great NBA player, but he's the epitome of a selfish ball player who has little interest in making his teammates better around him while he's chucking up shots. He may have NBA titles but I can't respect a player who selfishly thinks of himself before the team.
To me, respect means making your teammates better and looking at the overall goal above anything else, and avoid being caught up in the trash talking, ego game that seems to be prevolent in sports. I have never been a fan of trash talking, although that could be due to my team sports experience participating in Track and Cross Country, the ultimate non-trash talking sports around. You just don't see a lot of trash talking running around a circle multiple times or running a long distance course where you may not see a crowd until the start/finish area. But to me, all trash talking does is mean you have to humiliate your opponent to make your talent look better. An individual's goals shouldn't be above team goals in most cases, and everyone should understand their roles. It's a lot to ask people to sacrifice of themselves and check their ego at the door for the better good, but when it comes together, the results can be amazing.
And that's why I don't necessarily care that much if people don't respect the Trail Blazers. They are doing things the right way, and the results are showing on the court, and slowly but surely the big secret out northwest is being exposed. And having a team that you can love and respect at the end of the day is the most amazing thing a sports fan can ask for.
The Portland Trail Blazers are 23 and 15 after their game versus the Boston Celtics tonight, who hold the best record in the NBA at 31 wins and 6 losses. The Celtics have three great players, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, easily some of the best talent collected on a team and these guys are on their way to the Hall of Fame at some point. The young Trail Blazers could have walked in there and been intimidated and lost, and for the first few minutes of the game, it looked like they were overwhelmed a bit. But when shots started falling and the team made a few defensive stops in the second quarter, they found their game and went up by 9. They lead at the half, and kept things going until Ray Allen finally got heated up and the Celtics' aggressive play combined with some unusual official calls, the team finally succumbed and lost by 10. The game was much closer than the score indicates, but that probably won't be the story tomorrow. Instead of a team that has surpassed a lot of expectations and doing things not expected of a team this young, the stories will probably focus on the Celtics getting back on track after losing two games.
It's sad really, and Canzano makes a very valid point here. The Trail Blazers are absolutely though highly of by the NBA and some of the writers that follow the team, but they aren't respected very much and are still thought of as "over their head". I mean when sportswriters or other NBA media folks refer to Bo Outlaw for Travis Outlaw, LeMarcus for LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Olden for Greg Oden, it slaps in the face of disrespect here. Most media places have fact checkers in place, but to make fundamental mistakes like this doesn't make sense unless you don't respect what this team is doing.
I can see why they might be saying that. We don't have a true All Star on the team, even though Brandon Roy should be on the team. His numbers don't leap off the page, he just leads by making others better which often doesn't show up in the stats page. LaMarcus is getting better and better with each game, showing great defensive presence and an ability to hit shots from all over the court. Steve Blake, Jarrett Jack, Sergio Rodriguez and James Jones have all played integral roles making outside shots, key rebounds, and making great passes. Martell Webster has grown up this year, going from a timid outside shooter to a truly complimentary small forward. And Joel Pryzbilla, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz have manned the middle, playing tough defense and getting key rebounds as needed. None of these guys is a true NBA household name, you don't see their sneaker ads on TV, you don't have NBA commentators blathering on about how good they are all the time, and playing on the West Coast means most games out here are done while the East Coast sleeps.
The thing is that the team is great because of the sum of their parts. Yes, no one individually in that group strikes you as amazing, but put the collection together, let them play hard and help each other along, and behold - great things happen. Guys step up as needed, hitting game winning shots, making key defensive stops, scoring when other players are down, it ends up being a true team effort. And if that doesn't scream respect, I don't know what does.
But too many people think respect means doing things flashy or humiliating your opponent to make yourself look better. It's hard for me to watch some of the so called great NBA players, because it's all about what they do to make themselves look better and pad their own statistics. Kobe Bryant may be a great NBA player, but he's the epitome of a selfish ball player who has little interest in making his teammates better around him while he's chucking up shots. He may have NBA titles but I can't respect a player who selfishly thinks of himself before the team.
To me, respect means making your teammates better and looking at the overall goal above anything else, and avoid being caught up in the trash talking, ego game that seems to be prevolent in sports. I have never been a fan of trash talking, although that could be due to my team sports experience participating in Track and Cross Country, the ultimate non-trash talking sports around. You just don't see a lot of trash talking running around a circle multiple times or running a long distance course where you may not see a crowd until the start/finish area. But to me, all trash talking does is mean you have to humiliate your opponent to make your talent look better. An individual's goals shouldn't be above team goals in most cases, and everyone should understand their roles. It's a lot to ask people to sacrifice of themselves and check their ego at the door for the better good, but when it comes together, the results can be amazing.
And that's why I don't necessarily care that much if people don't respect the Trail Blazers. They are doing things the right way, and the results are showing on the court, and slowly but surely the big secret out northwest is being exposed. And having a team that you can love and respect at the end of the day is the most amazing thing a sports fan can ask for.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Chemistry
Ok, I promised that I would deal with Europe, but I had been thinking about the Trail Blazers all day after the experience last night. While the game antics had some issue, overall, I haven't been as excited about basketball in years.
I first moved to Portland in 1989, and the team had just secured Buck Williams as their starting forward, and the remaining pieces from good Trail Blazer teams in the 80's were here (Kersey, Drexler, Porter, Duckworth) plus a newly drafted Cliff Robinson. While the team was expected to do well, I got indoctrinated into Blazer Mania immediately as the team went all the way to the NBA Finals. While the team had talent on the floor, there was a passion and flair with which they played that impressed me.
Chemistry is a hard term to define, but to me, it means not only having talent and drive but you also care about your fellow teammates and are willing to do things to make them better. Chemistry also means taking this attitude to everyone you meet and everything you do. The Trail Blazers of the early 90's exemplified that with a long playoff run in 91 and another Finals run in 92. The team still had some successes in subsequent seasons, but the trouble started with firing Rick Adelman as coach. Most of the players were traded away from this era, and the team under new management started to rebuild. The final nail was Drexler being traded away to Houston and finally getting his championship ring with the Rockets.
The Trail Blazers were assembling a very talented team, but it became apparent that things were different in dealing with the fans and media. The team became distant and harder to understand, and the management moved to Seattle and remotely managed the team under the utmost secrecy. But the funny thing was the team was still winning, so many of the danger signs weren't apparent because winning will make people overlook stuff.
When the team made other playoff runs in 2000 and 2001, it brought back the Blazer Mania passion of the city until a fourth quarter against our hated rivals the Lakers. Instead of bringing the team back as a whole, there was more roster tinkering which led to harsh words and bad attitude. Over the next few years, the team imploded with malcontents, problems with the law, drug arrests, and the things labeling the team the Jail Blazers.
New management wanted to turn the corner, but it wasn't until the new coach Nate McMillian and new GM Kevin Pritchard were on board that you saw huge changes. They wanted to build a team that was bigger than themselves, and hearken back to the old Trail Blazer days of the 70s and 80s, and they set up a plan to build a team of solid talented guys who wanted to be part of something bigger and give back to the team and the town. And their plan couldn't have worked any better.
The parallels to old glory teams is apparent, as the core guys Aldridge, Roy, Blake, Webster, Frye, Pryzbilla, Sergio, Jarrett, Jones, and Outlaw have come together amazingly. The youngest team in the NBA has a 13 game winning streak to their credit, and currently own a 12 game home winning streak, doing it completely under the radar from most fans. But in hearing more about the team, you hear about their talent but also the community events, interaction with fans, and the genuine care they have for each other. This team loves playing basketball with each other, and the results show on the court. Like any fan, it's frustrating when they don't play to their potential, but right now, I wouldn't trade this team for anything.
The Portland Timbers, my other team I love, went through a similar renaissance this year after a dismal 2006 season with a coach who lacked direction and a team that struggled to find its chemistry. A new coach came in, players started believing in themselves and each other, and the results led to an undefeated home record. While chemistry in school wasn't one of my better subject, I love watching great chemistry unfold on the court and the field. Here's to 2008, where the playoffs aren't just a goal for the Timbers and Trail Blazers, but a reality..
Postscript -
I first moved to Portland in 1989, and the team had just secured Buck Williams as their starting forward, and the remaining pieces from good Trail Blazer teams in the 80's were here (Kersey, Drexler, Porter, Duckworth) plus a newly drafted Cliff Robinson. While the team was expected to do well, I got indoctrinated into Blazer Mania immediately as the team went all the way to the NBA Finals. While the team had talent on the floor, there was a passion and flair with which they played that impressed me.
Chemistry is a hard term to define, but to me, it means not only having talent and drive but you also care about your fellow teammates and are willing to do things to make them better. Chemistry also means taking this attitude to everyone you meet and everything you do. The Trail Blazers of the early 90's exemplified that with a long playoff run in 91 and another Finals run in 92. The team still had some successes in subsequent seasons, but the trouble started with firing Rick Adelman as coach. Most of the players were traded away from this era, and the team under new management started to rebuild. The final nail was Drexler being traded away to Houston and finally getting his championship ring with the Rockets.
The Trail Blazers were assembling a very talented team, but it became apparent that things were different in dealing with the fans and media. The team became distant and harder to understand, and the management moved to Seattle and remotely managed the team under the utmost secrecy. But the funny thing was the team was still winning, so many of the danger signs weren't apparent because winning will make people overlook stuff.
When the team made other playoff runs in 2000 and 2001, it brought back the Blazer Mania passion of the city until a fourth quarter against our hated rivals the Lakers. Instead of bringing the team back as a whole, there was more roster tinkering which led to harsh words and bad attitude. Over the next few years, the team imploded with malcontents, problems with the law, drug arrests, and the things labeling the team the Jail Blazers.
New management wanted to turn the corner, but it wasn't until the new coach Nate McMillian and new GM Kevin Pritchard were on board that you saw huge changes. They wanted to build a team that was bigger than themselves, and hearken back to the old Trail Blazer days of the 70s and 80s, and they set up a plan to build a team of solid talented guys who wanted to be part of something bigger and give back to the team and the town. And their plan couldn't have worked any better.
The parallels to old glory teams is apparent, as the core guys Aldridge, Roy, Blake, Webster, Frye, Pryzbilla, Sergio, Jarrett, Jones, and Outlaw have come together amazingly. The youngest team in the NBA has a 13 game winning streak to their credit, and currently own a 12 game home winning streak, doing it completely under the radar from most fans. But in hearing more about the team, you hear about their talent but also the community events, interaction with fans, and the genuine care they have for each other. This team loves playing basketball with each other, and the results show on the court. Like any fan, it's frustrating when they don't play to their potential, but right now, I wouldn't trade this team for anything.
The Portland Timbers, my other team I love, went through a similar renaissance this year after a dismal 2006 season with a coach who lacked direction and a team that struggled to find its chemistry. A new coach came in, players started believing in themselves and each other, and the results led to an undefeated home record. While chemistry in school wasn't one of my better subject, I love watching great chemistry unfold on the court and the field. Here's to 2008, where the playoffs aren't just a goal for the Timbers and Trail Blazers, but a reality..
Postscript -
- I read my post about Blaze yesterday and the kid's interaction and realized that I significantly downplayed the kid's action. The tail tugging in the fourth quarter was an attempt to spin him around by his tail not once, not twice, but three times. I'm all for mascots getting ribbed a bit and poked/prodded, but I draw the line at attempting to harm them. I must be getting soft in my older age.
- As of today, the Trail Blazers are in first place in the Northwest division. They haven't been in first place in any division for 7 years, so this is huge. Yes, they are going on a 7 game almost 2 week road trip starting on Sunday in Toronto, but right now I don't care. My team is in first place.
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