Reap what ye sow while ye may

LeBron James ruined the NBA for me

and apparently Damon Jones' night

In hindsight, "The Decision" has fundamentally shifted the landscape of professional basketball stardom. While the change had been imminent for years, this monstrosity of a PR nightmare was the straw that broke the camel's back, proverbially speaking.

One man's decision established precedence for how other "super" stars would treat their teams and their fan-bases.

Maybe the Miami Cheat were fated during that rumored wedding toast. Perhaps New York will yet witness the dawning of its own trifecta, with the public and not-so-public (future) defections of Carmelo and CP3 will prove. Deron Williams is frustrated and is likely to leave Utah when his contract expires in 2 years.

We aren't talking about your typical free-agent bonanza. NBA free agency usually consists of a pou-pou platter of degrading rotation players and discarded draft picks. This isn't the NFL, where you can regularly find talented players undrafted. In the NBA, more often than not, the cream rises to the top. One player can impact the game to a greater degree.

And yet when it comes time for free-agency, it isn't supposed to be those impact players switching teams. In fact, it was practically unheard of for decades (sure, there are notable exceptions). But the point stands, the defections of James and Bosh (taking their "talents" to South Beach) we're in and of themselves unprecedented.

Why wouldn't a group of 20-something rich celebrities not want to hang out all the time in perfect weather?

Because of the precedent set by LeBron's selfish motives, every star athlete views it as his given right to play for a winning team with people he likes.

Who cares about the team that drafted them, gave them a job, took a chance?

Who cares about the fans who have emotionally invested themselves in their team (for better or worse)?

Star players are beginning to believe that it is up to them to do whatever it takes to see that their needs are taken care of above all else. If your team just isn't quite cutting it, demand a trade, or wait and leave.

I've heard the argument that it's a business, and that team's don't show loyalty either.

Aren't we beyond that simplistic logic when we talk about this caliber of player? Doesn't being in the upper stratosphere of talent afford you the luxury of upholding noble principles? Have you ever lectured a famine-victim on ethics? 

Like I said, LeBron James ruined the NBA for me. In one off-season, Miami accomplished (talent-wise) what my team (Blazers) have been building towards for years, patiently, with their own nucleus.

Screw the building approach, now big-market teams can just court superstars through eventual free-agency. And those superstars can and will put entire fan-base's on edge, ultimately breaking their hearts. You don't think Nuggets fans would rather say "screw you" to 'Melo and kick his ass to the curb? It hurts to have someone look you in the eyes and lie to your face.

Maybe Mr. LaLa Anthony can pull the knife out of Denver's back for the next guy to use.

He definitely dropped that baby

Mixed Metaphors (There's no 'I' in Dead Horse)

Today, the Portland Trailblazers announced Center Marcus Camby would require left-knee surgery to repair a meniscus tear.

Karma is, indeed, a B

It is a season, yet again, mired in injury. And yet adversity presents itself as an opportunity for self-reflexivity and, ultimately, improvement.

The man drafted in front of Kevin Durant is out for the season, again.

The franchise hero underwent double knee surgery.

Only recently our backup center returned from injuring the same knee twice the previous season.

And now this.

It seems as if constant injury is a tired theme with this team. References to us as the "frailblazers" cannot be refuted, because health is something outside of the athlete's control. At least presumably. And this news which at first glance appears to be beating a dead horse is actually a lesson in disguise.

We never had a championship window.

In 2007, the Blazers were THE upcoming team. After drafting Oden first overall and uniting him in a core alongside Roy, Aldridge, Batum, Bayless and a stable of vets, we were odds on favorites to contend for the Western Conference title for years to come.

Fast-forward to now, and several season-ending knee surgeries for Mr. Oden later we have never truly experienced a playoffs where we had all our weapons. Hell, we've barely had a playoff run with our best player healthy.

And during this time, the team has gelled more than ever. We've put up 50 win seasons sporting a cumulative injury report rivaling Webster's Encyclopedia. With LaMarcus Aldridge blossoming into an all-star, Wesley Matthews filling in serviceably for Brandon Roy, and a variety of role players contributing above-expectations we're on track for yet another playoff appearance.

In fact, most feel good stories occur outside of first-place.

So while the L*kers, Celtics, cHeat-ers, and Magic make title runs, we can be content with what we have. Fate may have dealt us a bad hand so far. Who knows, maybe in some year to come we'll hit blackjack?

For now, leave the "I" to them.

We have 'Team'.

KG originally killed the horse, then beat it, then pulled down 13 boards that night

What could have been (and what never will be)

Not pictured: hope-crushing inevitability

I've always lived life by the maxim "you never know what you have before it's gone". To me, this motto is a constant reminder to appreciate what I have and apply a certain degree of reflexivity to my own consciousness. If we do not take honest assessments of ourselves, how can we possibly know what to appreciate, and what to improve upon?

The 2010-2011 NBA season is unfolding like a flash of lightning before our eyes.

The Miami Heat have close to 30 wins and only 9 losses, despite starting players I would never play with even in the most drunken, peer-pressure induced game of NBA 2k ever. The Boston Celtics appear to have found half their roster on a retirement cruise, and yet lead the Eastern Conference with it's best record. The Lakers are playing like the defending champs ought to, displaying tremendous depth. In sum, the NBA aristocracy is flourishing.

Here in the metaphorical slums of Portland Trailblazers fandom, things aren't as rosy.

Greg Oden, the pentulimate definition of disappointing, is out for the season yet again, proving once and for all that instead of getting Hakeem, we got Bowie all over again.

Greg.. Saaaaaaad.......

Brandon Roy, the teams rookie of the year, 3-time all-star and franchise savior, is experience a dramatic deterioration in the health of his knee(s) (honestly nobody really knows what's going on, the team is being more tight-lipped on this subject than an FCC Censor on George Carlin's comedy career).

We all know what he's thinking

So two members of our dreamed-of "big three" (Roy, Aldridge, Oden) are out of the picture.

In the Summer of 2007, when we used the first overall pick in the draft to tab Greg Oden, our management (in particular the late, great Kevin Pritchard) envisioned our team as San Antonio-West. This isn't a stretch-of-the-imagination comparison made popular on sports talk radio, KP would literally refer to the Spurs behind closed doors as the model for our franchise. A defensively-dominant big man (Duncan, Oden), an incredibly versatile and reliable wing (Ginobili, Roy), and super-talented third player who brings an added dimension (Parker-penetration, Aldridge- a mobile, face-up big man). Litter in a smattering of above-average to good role players (Dre, Batum, Fernandez, The Pryzbilla Thrilla) and we could, nay, we would end up being consistent championship contenders. We didn't need Oden to be a stud on offense, we already had an offensively-proficient big man and a stud at the shooting guard position, we just needed Greg to do what he did in college, play some of the best interior defense seen since David Robinson, Hakeem Olijuwan, and Tim Duncan. Nicolas Batum, one of the aforementioned role players, happens to be (quietly) one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. Put him on the other teams best player, with a hyper-athletic Oden patrolling the paint, and we had the makings of a dominant defensive team with a highly efficient offense. Efficient in the sense that while we had a low pace, almost every year we ranked in the top of the league in terms of points per possession, a key measure of offensive efficiency. Defense and offensive efficiency, surely the two most important ingredients to playoff success?

Instead, Oden kept getting hurt, and LaMarcus Aldridge kept neglecting to rebound, then all of our backup bigs kept getting hurt, and Roy kept getting banged up in-season carrying the slack, and consecutive first-round playoff exits at the hands of the Rockets and Suns have brought us here.

To the place where dreams die. And where what could have been becomes what never will be.

Life, as it often does when going about making bad news happen, manages a silver lining.

This season, LA has emerged as one of the premier talents in the league, playing like an absolute all-star (something that had been a goal of his for years, but something he never lived up to until now). He's attacking the basket more, taking less shots from outside 10-12 feet, rebounding and playing good interior defense. All told, he's blossoming into the player we thought we got with the second overall pick in the 2005 draft.

Wes Matthews, the second-year player we gave a big free agency contract to, is also playing like an all-star, putting up averages remarkably similar to what Mr. Roy used to do for us on a game-to-game basis. He also plays superb perimeter defense, making him and Batum and lethal combination.

Marcus Camby, the big man we traded for from the Clippers, is rebounding like a beast (when healthy, he is approximately 370 years old after all) and playing solid interior D.

There is a legacy in this realization, a leftover memory as it were.

The guy we assume will no longer be able to be our fearless leader, and the guy who should have done so much more for us, aren't really a part of this current feel-good story.

I like rooting for this team, we are underdogs again and coming from a small-market, I think that's how it will be more often than not. The little guy rarely gets to play spoiler.

And yet its odd watching the ebb and flow of this current team without thinking back to what could have been, and what never will be. Every team and, really, every person has a story to tell along these lines. Every vocabulary can express regret. A part of me wishes that for one season, even for one playoffs, I could have seen the team I thought we had back then. Just once, it would have been nice to go on a run. Just once during my lifetime, it'd be nice if things worked out like they did in '77. I've always dreamed of attending a title parade.

Instead, this is my reality.

We won't be winning any championships, and unless we make a move our ceiling is consistent playoff team, consistent first-round exit.

And you know what? Compared to the "what never will be" of others, I'm perfectly fine with this outcome. I can roll with this. Life rarely works out the way you want it to.

And if life gives you lemons, distill lemon vodka and invite some girls over.

Do I even need to point out which one's Ben Roethlisberger?

Where's the leak?

Portland dropped its 6th straight game tonight to the lowly Wizards, putting the Blazers at 8-11 for the year. It's also worth mentioning that Dallas, Denver, San Antonio and Utah have all been on winning streaks while the Blazers have been in their current tail spin. I was serious when I tweeted that Portland would win 60 games this year; now it looks like I was 15-20 wins off. Add the current losing streak to division losses to...well, everyone they've played (including two losses to OKC), and it looks like the Blazers might miss the playoffs and move back down to the basketball purgatory of a late lottery pick in the NBA draft. So what's the problem, exactly? There are several popular options:

1) Injuries have left the team devastated. The traditional logic says that without Oden or Pendergraph, the team has been out-rebounded in pretty much every game this year and relying on Sean Marks to an alarming degree, and Roy has been hobbling around a lot, but I don't think that's the real issue. Roy's been back for a few games and has managed to get his points--he had 18 tonight--and the team managed to use (La)Marcus inside to get to 50 wins last year.

2) Fire Nate! Some people think that the coach has mixed around lineups so much that people, like Nic Batum, are uncomfortable in their roles on the team and their minutes on the court, and his slow-down style is crushing the young and athletic team that always seems to play better when they run. I don't buy this excuse, either. There's a reason why the defensive-minded Nate is on everyone's short list to replace coach Spo in Miami next year--he's good! All the Nate haters need to look around the league and see how few coaches are better than him. This is the guy who took an injury-ravaged team to the playoffs last year.

3) No leadership. Many fans think that teams that lose in the 4th quarter over and over again--which has been Portland's specialty this year--lack a veteran who simply won't let those collapses happen. Nope. Not buying that, either. Roy has hit lots of buzzer-beaters in the past and Miller and Camby have been around forever. Plus, LaMarcus isn't exactly a kid anymore and Joel's been in the league for a while, too. The team has veterans and does not lack leaders.

Honestly, I think it's probably a little of all three. Although the team has all the components of a winning team, years of playing the high-energy, scrappy underdogs fighting through everything likely takes a toll on everyone. Still, losing game after game in the fourth quarter, even to terrible teams, is not an accident. Something's wrong in Portland--I just wish I knew what it was.

I'm thankful I don't have to cheer for the Heat

Thanksgiving came and went. I'm Thankful for my basketball team once again being the scrappy underdogs who I love to cheer for, who are genuinely good people without sexual assault arrest records, who play hard every night and hang with teams who are deeper than they are. The Blazers have more what-ifs than any team in NBA history. What if Sabonis had come over in 1989? What about Jordan? Or Barkley? Or Stockton? Or hell, even Sam Perkins? What about Chris Paul, or....gulp...Durant? What if we flipped Raef's contract for Caron Butler? Any one of those go the other way and Portland has multiple titles...as in, 3-5 rings...in my lifetime. As in, we're a spoiled, entitled, obnoxious fanbase (as opposed to just an obnoxious fanbase that we are now!). In a weird way, I kind of like how things turned out.

If you're wondering what happens when teams get everything they ever wanted, take a gander at south beach. Right now the Heat are 8-7 (a worse record than Portland, for those keeping track). While I have no doubt that Miami will eventually be a dynasty given all their talent, I'm not surprised to see them struggling right now. No one knows their role yet. Pat Riley assumed that if he just threw a lot of talent on the floor it would automatically mean titles, ignoring the fact that this exact strategy at the Olympics led to Team USA getting owned by 12 fat guys from Greece who couldn't hack it in the D-League. Sometimes--in fact, most of the time--the team with the most talent loses to the best team. A full house beats three Aces when I play poker. The Heat will win titles, just not this year--and I'm glad I get to cheer for their exact opposite on the court.

Things to remember about Kobe Bryant

Now that the Lakers are on pace to win 65+ games this year and are clearly the best team in the NBA, I feel it is my duty as a Blazer fan to remind everyone of a few key realities about Kobe Bryant.

1) He is, at best, an adulterer who chose to have rough sex with a woman he had know for less than an hour in a hotel room in Colorado. The details aren't pretty.

2) He is responsible for the single most ridiculous photo shoot of all time, in which he was trying to look like Tupac for some reason.

3) Phil Jackson, a man who has spent years with Bryant, calls him an arrogant, selfish child who is difficult to work with.

4) He is a terrible teammate who only cares about himself and will gladly throw absolutely anyone under the bus as soon as things don't go well.

5) He has a history of doing poorly in big games.

Laker fans can cheer for him. I'm not asking anyone to root against their hometown team, or to betray a lifelong allegiance to Los Angeles. All I'm asking is that everyone keep these five facts in mind every time Bryant does something impressive on the court or anyone mentions giving him another MVP award. If I get the impression that people are losing this perspective, I'll be back--believe me, there are plenty of other reasons why Kobe is an asshole.

Hope Reborn: the story of the 2007 NBA Draft

In the spring of 2007 I was driving home from work when I remembered, the NBA draft lottery was starting. I tuned my car’s radio to the local sports channel to find the commissioner approaching single-digit territory. Panicking, I pulled my car over into a random parking lot, turned off the engine, and waited.

Number 9, The Chicago Bulls.

I was an ardent fan of the Portland Trailblazers since my youth. The highlight of my childhood is the time my parents managed to score courtside tickets to the home game against the Mavericks from a friend. When I sat down, I wondered why there were empty seats next to me considering how close it was to game time. Several minutes into the first quarter, my childhood idol, Blazers point guard Terry Porter, subbed out of the game and sat down next to me. Too star-struck to say anything, I absorbed as many details as I could, from his height (freakishly tall from my perspective), body odor (sweaty) to his general demeanor (locked in to the game). It was, I can remember vividly, the defining moment in my adolescent sports career. Until that spring day.

Number 8, The Charlotte Bobcats.

A year prior, my Blazers had begun their ascent back to relevance by drafting Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft. Roy made the all-rookie first-team, and Aldridge seemed like a sure-thing power forward. Together, they led the team to a 32-50 record, an 11 game improvement upon the previous year and an occasion of great hope, following years of dread and despondence during the “JailBlazers” era. Ironically, the Blazers had the best statistical chance of landing the top pick in that draft, but had settled for the fourth overall selection. In spite of that, front-office guru Kevin Pritchard traded pick #4 for the second overall pick from the Bulls, drafting Aldridge.  He then traded for Boston’s #7, drafted Randy Foye (who?) and traded him to Minnesota for University of Washington senior, Brandon Roy. The franchise had a savior.

Number 7, The Minnesota Timberwolves.

This year, the Blazers had the sixth best statistical chance of winning the top pick, surely not enough for anything but a late top-10 pick. However, my excitement at this point in the draft lottery began to pique. We could do something with a top-6 pick, potentially building upon the solid core we had procured previously.

Number 6, The Milwaukee Bucks.

A top-5 pick!? Alright! It seemed fortune was smiling upon the Blazers. I was fully prepared to drop the maximum 4 spots and end up with the 10th overall pick, so exceeding statistical probability was a newfound experience for me as a fan. Of course, the top prizes of this draft were Kevin Durant, the lanky University of Texas forward who won practically every national award as a true freshman, and Greg Oden, the once-in-a-generation Ohio State University center who had had a highlight-reel high school career and, as a true freshman and with a broken right (dominant hand) wrist almost the entire season, had led the Buckeyes to the national championship game, where they eventually lost to the senior-heavy Florida Gators dynasty.

Number 5, The Boston Celtics.

A top-4 pick!! Of course, I made no qualms of getting a shot at the two titans above, but an Al Horford or Mike Conley or Jeff Green seemed like just what the doctor ordered for my team.

And the number 4 pick in the 2007 NBA draft goes to.. The Memphis Grizzlies.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A top-3 pick! We were guaranteed at least a solidly-good player! I couldn’t believe myself. I was hyperventilating. I’m sure people in the nearby apartments could hear my scream relentlessly at the radio as the commissioner stepped up to the podium to announce the number 3 overall pick. My heart skipped a beat, dropped down into my stomach, then proceeded to lead the entire city of Chicago in a rendition of Twist n’ Shout a la Ferris Bueler. I literally hopped in the back seat, curled my knees up to my chest, and waited with an anticipation I had never experienced in my life. Those few moments seemed.. like an eternity.

And the number 3 pick in the 2007 NBA draft goes to..

…

..

The Atlanta Hawks.

Stunned, I wiped my brow, blinked a few times, and looked outside the car. The world seemed so.. bright. So inviting. I couldn’t even conceptualize the good fortune bestowed upon my favorite team. We had a top-2 pick in a lottery with only 2 sure-fire prospects (according to every analyst ever). Honestly, the next few minutes were a blur of emotions. The then-Seattle Sonics won the number 2 overall pick, guaranteeing my Blazers the #1 overall pick for the first time since we had drafted Mychal Thompson back before I was born.

We did it. We had our choice of the future all-star wing player, or the seemingly once-in-a-generation big man.

I screamed, bounced around in my car (testing the physical limits of my Mazda’s cheap interior) and called every Blazers fan I knew to scream some more.

Our team, being built as a TEAM, as a model of the San Antonio Spurs (Kevin Pritchard often cited them as our rebuilding trajectory) would be able to make a franchise defining choice. Right away, all of the analysts posited that we would select Oden and construct one of the most dominant defensive teams the league had seen that decade. At the time, I couldn’t agree more with them. Durant was impressive, to be sure, but he was so damn skinny, and the prospect of having such a dominant defensive center on my team was tantalizing. I loved defense, and team basketball, and it seemed drafting Durant would take away from Roy’s importance on the perimeter, something I deemed expendable in comparison to the opportunities Oden afforded us as a franchise.

I mean, check out this video from that years NCAA tournament when, in a game against Tennessee, Oden absolutely DENIED Tennessee’s (a good team) potentially game winning shot.

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This is a story about hope, about passion and about the feelings such an artificial construct as the NBA can evoke in a human being. For the next few months, as the Blazers blogosphere (one of the most active in all sports) constantly debated Oden vs. Durant, I was on cloud-9. It didn’t matter who we chose, what mattered is that we got to choose.

Hindsight is 20-20. As a sports fan, nothing is more painful for me than to witness Durant blossoming into one of the premier players of our generation for Oklahoma City while Oden blossomed into one of the most loyal customers of the local arthoscopic knee surgery clinic. Really and truly, the despair I know as a Blazers fan now, with Oden’s Portland career likely over after another season-long setback, and Brandon Roy’s body breaking down faster than an AA member at an open-bar, is greater than anything I’ve ever known before. My friends mock the bad fortune of my team, largely at my own expense. And you know what? That’s ok. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we want. Sometimes your team drafts Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan, then makes the same mistake all over again 2 decades later. Who knew?

But nobody can take that day away from me.