Hi there.  If you’re reading this then you’ve either been bugged incessantly by yours truly to check me out or you’re a wayward soul in search of some high quality basketball dialogue and analysis.  In either case, welcome and please make yourself at home.  If the namesake of this site wasn’t clear enough, this is a place for professional basketball talk, specifically focusing on the Portland Trail Blazers.  Why the Blazers?  We’ll get to that in a minute, but first I should probably introduce myself and establish the lens through which we’ll view professional basketball and the Blazers on this site.

 

In the interest of full disclosure I’ll get this one out of the way first: I was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, a quiet bedroom community (think a slightly more populated Lake Oswego with more Jewish people) just a few miles west of Boston (I’ll pause now and let the inevitable chorus of boos and groans subside…).  Granted, I am not a native Oregonian, and I have been known to root for the Celtics, Red Sox and the Patriots.  But believe me when I tell you this: I am not, nor will I ever be the stereotypical Boston sports fan you’re probably envisioning right now.  Though I may be opinionated about almost everything and occasionally loud, I am not some ignorant, ill-tempered, foul mouthed (ok maybe I am a bit foul mouthed), idiot MASS-hole who will forcefully chant “Yankees Suck!” at any social function, be it baseball game, wedding, funeral or graduation.  Trust me, I hate that guy waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy more than you do, even if we do root for the same teams.

 

But if I’m not that guy, then who am I?  Like other Boston sports fans, I am passionate about sports and the teams that I follow.  I have high expectations of the players who take the field and I believe that as fans we owe it to our players and to each other to be intelligent, enlightened and passionate about the game.  Most of all, I like to see sports played at their absolute apex, regardless of who is playing.  That last bit was a long time coming; especially separating the players from the jerseys they wear.  At this point in my life, I can say with confidence that I can appreciate really good basketball in every form and in every color of jersey without too much bias (ok, maybe a little bit of bias still when it comes to the Lakers or Anderson Varejao).  I’d like to think that I still have the passion of a relentless homer, yet that side is well balanced by my appreciation for good basketball.  Thus, as a writer and a fan of the game, I feel comfortable telling you that my favorite player is Paul Pierce (though he may get passed by Rajon Rondo pretty quickly) and yet at the same time I can say that I believe LeBron James is the best player in the game (and no, that’s not solely because I personally witnessed him drop 41/10/8 without trying in Portland recently).  Even though LeBron and the Cavs are rivals of the Celtics, I can’t do anything but give respect to him and them for the way they play ball.

 

Because of my perspective, I get a great deal of joy out of watching the Portland Trail Blazers play basketball.  The Blazers play basketball the way it should be played, and the people that watch them understand this and appreciate this fact.  Even during a season where everything has gone wrong, the Blazers don’t make excuses, don’t quit and continue to play hard when many lesser teams would throw their hands up and say, “wait ‘til next year” (the Celtics are currently doing this even though their nucleus is past their prime).  In Portland, we know that’s what is coming, but it doesn’t matter one iota, the fans still expect a high level of play and the players are still striving for it.  This is just one of the many reasons that I have fallen in love with this city and this area of the country, but it has greatly influenced me and given me a greater appreciation for the Blazers and their fans.  This city loves professional basketball, and the players that play for the Blazers all seem to love the city back (and how could you not?). 

 

Maybe I’m drawn to Portland because I see a bit of Boston in this city.  The people are noticeably nicer and the two cities themselves have completely different auras and customs, but in the sports fans of both Portland and Boston, I see the same mentality and drive in the face of turmoil, doubt and disappointment that Kesey so beautifully captured in his epic novel Sometimes a Great Notion: “Never Give a Inch!”  Before Boston was spoiled by championship seasons from three of their major franchises (sad trombone for the Bruins), it was a desperately hungry city that defiantly believed their year was coming, even after endless mistakes, missed opportunities, freak occurrences and tragedies.  I see the same resolve in many Portland basketball fans that have weathered equally brutal if not greater storms in their rich history. 

 

So what do I hope to accomplish with this blog about professional basketball in the Rose City?  Some of my motives are admittedly self-serving (I want to improve as a writer, I need to express myself about basketball, etc.), but most of all I want to provide some thoughtful dialogue and analysis about the Blazers and hopefully get others thinking about the Blazers and the NBA as much as I do.  To that effect, I want to focus more on in-depth topics and the real meat of what basketball is all about rather than instantaneously regurgitating what happened in last night’s game.  Other people with more time and better press credentials can handle that; I’m after deeper and potentially more interesting stories and hope to provide quality analysis rather than quick analysis. 

 

Most importantly, however, I pledge to actively try and stem the tide of writers that hit the panic button after every loss and who seek to anoint players like Leon Powe as the next Moses Malone (sorry Tommy Heinsohn, but we all know that is ridiculous) just to attract readers and to fill their daily quota of material.  That kind of writing makes me sick to my stomach and I generally don’t see the point in doing those exercises, so that won’t be something that goes on here.  Does that mean I’m going to ignore problems and gloss over the team’s shortcomings or deficiencies?  No, it just means that when I do discuss these topics it will (hopefully) be from a rational point of view and will endeavor to avoid hyperbole at all costs. 

 

One more thing you probably won’t find too much of here is ridiculous predictions and postulations about future success or failure of any team or player.  This is another popular trend in sports writing that makes me sick, and it seems to me that people engage in this sort of activity simply to prove that they are right or smarter than the next person.  I don’t feel the need to do that and also I feel like it cheapens the collective narrative of professional basketball so I will do everything in my power to provide a different brand of analysis that is hopefully more thoughtful and enlightening and just as entertaining to my dedicated readers (if there are, in fact, any of you out there).   

 

Hopefully what I can provide is a balanced view of the Portland Trail Blazers that explores the games, players and possibilities for this team in a way that isn’t done anywhere else.  Because I am not a native Oregonian and am separated from the history and legacy of the Blazers somewhat, I feel like I can be an objective observer and see things that others cannot.  At the same time, because of my background and my understanding of what it means to be a member of a tortured fan base, I feel like I can still sympathize with my peers here in Portland and can understand the fan’s perspective on all of this which should hopefully allow the words that appear here to resonate with everyone who roots for the Blazers. 

 

Undoubtedly this will be a work in progress at times, and I will likely be the first one to point out my own mistakes and errors, but that doesn’t mean that commentary and dialogue on this site are unwelcome or unnecessary.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  My dream scenario involves this site becoming a forum for all basketball knowledge and a place where we can cultivate real dialogue that extends beyond me talking at the rest of the world about Portland basketball.  I’m not in this for money or publicity; I am doing this because on a very real level I have a deep need to express my ideas about basketball. The Blazers happen to be the most available source material and they happen to play a great style of ball that strikes at the heart of what this game is all about. 

 

With all that said I’d like to once again welcome you to the site and reassure you that although my roots lie elsewhere, I have a firm grasp of the Blazer history from Ramsay, Walton and Lucas to Adelman, Porter, Sabonis and Drexler and beyond.  So stay tuned for more regular analysis and commentary about the best team in the NBA that nobody knows about, your Portland Trail Blazers.