Maybe Blazer fans don’t get sports.
Why are we panicking after a week and a half? We have two significant additions to the rotation from last year in Andre Miller and Martell Webster. These guys will both be major contributors, and it will take a little time to figure how they can be worked into a rotation that won 54 games last year and a division title without them.
Give it time Rip City…
woody, the face of legitimate blazermania
It’s not about the numbers.
Sure Lamarcus is starting to put up stat lines that are stereotypically reserved for All-Stars. And yes, Greg Oden has started to make his fantasy owners happy on a nightly basis.
But the story of this team, is not one of cold hard statistics. I want you to take your fantasy- basketball-dollar-beer-night-dispensing-helmet off and start singing the right praises. We are watching the development of a basketball team, not collectively filling out a tax return. It’s the triumph of emotion over mathematics.
The things to watch for and celebrate are the times like when Rudy is leading an open break, and decides to shovel pass it back to Outlaw when he could have easily finished with a tomahawk of his own. Sure that is ‘another assist’ but think about what it’s doing for team morale. It’s about getting guys excited to play. Keeping the fire up. Knowing that your teammates are always looking for ways to involve you.
It’s things like Bayless being the first one off the bench to chest bump Sergio after a momentum flushing lob to Oden driving the lane.
Does he get a stat for that?
These are the signs of a team. These are the kinds of efforts that make the game fun to play, fun to watch and ultimately lead to more wins.
So many articles I’m reading out there are focusing on the wrong things. It’s stats over the real story. I don’t want to see stats by every single player mentioned in an article.
It’s a season of individual turning points, not sustained statistical efficiency. We are watching this club turn the corner from unknown potential and start this era’s fastbreak toward greatness.
Judge this team not by the healthy scoring averages.
Judge them by unselfishness.
52 points for Roy against the Suns? Nice footnote. I’ll mark that night down not as a career best, but as the night B-Roy reached out and claimed his swagger.
Get ready Portland, your team is forging an identity. An identity that has the consistency and force to routinely overwhelm inferior opponents. Gone are the days of playing down to the opposition. Expect more blowouts. Expect a healthy, taking care of business mindset.
Who cares who the leading scorer is. The team leader is Brandon Roy. Look at the trickle down effect his confidence is having. That is the story of this team. Not Oden’s ‘nice rookie numbers.’ Leave that as the filler for talk radio.
It’s about the vibe this team is creating.
Hello Rip City, is that really you?
and put some stank on it!!
You can see it in the way Brandon Roy hugs LeBron as the final buzzer goes off.
You can hear it in Lamarcus’ voice when he is interviewed after the game.
And on nights like last night against Cleveland, you can feel it in the final score.
You can tell this young, young squad feels cool, and even privileged to be playing in the same league as LeBron James.
This isn’t the Make a Wish Foundation fellas.
This is the NBA. And you belong.
There is a giddiness in the collective approach to players like this, that is holding them back from reaching their next level just yet. They are a little too happy to be here. It’s like they haven’t realized the super heroes they are in their own right. They are still high school kids, who love to watch the NBA on TNT. It hasn’t become a job to them. They don’t go about their battling with these superstars with the proper amount of loathing.
This is the kind of situation Michael Jordan always capitalized on. He owned the mystique. He knew what players looked up to him, and he milked his aura to gain a competitive advantage. You can tell LeBron has not started to leverage his status into more wins yet. Unfortunately the Blazers are still all too eager to help him out. I remember the closing seconds of a game a couple years ago, when LeBron was given a wide open path to the hoop for the game winner. It was as if none of these young Blazers wanted to make him mad by putting up resistance. There was a token arm flail, but that was it. Cavs win.
This was the beauty of the infamous ‘Jordan Rules’ that the Bad Boy Pistons used to employ. Once they stepped on the court, they were able to rally a team wide disdain of His Airness. The result were cheap shots and thuggish fouls that made it clear there was no love coming from Motown.
It was encouraging to see Aldridge get in KG’s face the last time the Celtics were in town. That was a little ‘Jordan Rule-ish.’ But for these Blazers to take the next step, to become legitimate contenders, they need to extend that ‘I don’t care what you think’ courtesy to the likes of King James and Kobe.
When Roy talks about Kobe Bryant, his words ooze with reverence. You can tell the kid grew up watching Kobe. That the Lakers’ millennium dynasty was his favorite team. He worships Kobe. As long as this is the case, there is only a certain amount of scrap and chippiness that these Blazers can extend. If you look closely, you can see our Blazers step off the gas slightly when a Kobe, or a King James take it hard to the hole. They don’t want one of those guys directing one of their trademark killer stares at them. They want to play it safe. Better not ruffle any feathers.
Think back to the past Blazer squads that legitimately contended for titles. What are the moments of toughness that defined their never back down attitudes? I think of Jerome Kersey shoving the hell out of Scottie Pippen. I think of Buck Williams getting in Karl Malone’s face. I think of Brian Grant taking an elbow from Malone, and then going chest to chest with him.
That’s the sign of a veteran team on a mission. That’s the sign of a team realizing they belong, and not wanting anyone to take it from them. It’s a sign of desperation and belonging.
Until we see that level of push back, and the treating of superstars as mere mortals on the court, there is a limit to how far we can go.
Don’t believe in the mystique Blazers.
You’re a powerhouse in your own right. Realize it.
When LaMarcus Aldridge was forced to wear a headband due to medical reasons, it pushed him a step closer to his eventual transformation into the next Rasheed Wallace.
The comparisons have been there since he was playing at Texas.
But I see Aldridge becoming a more refined version of ‘Sheed. A ‘Sheed without the crazy. For better and for worse.
What the crazy did to Rasheed’s game, was to reign him in from stretches of detachment where he was kind of drifting along out there. He would get bumped a few times, and the refs would let it go. Then all of a sudden, he would channel that anger into three or four vicious post moves on consecutive times down the court. The moments when he would take out his frustration and aggression on his defender were among his finest. When his anger would simply turn into those trademark crazy eyes, verbal tirades and towel throwing moments, were his darkest hours.
LaMarcus is a gym rat.
A quality that ‘Sheed never really exhibited. A quality that would have morphed Wallace from being a passionate, albeit streaky star who could beat his man whenever the whim moved him to do so, into one of the game’s greatest players. Ever. A potential ‘Sheed never embraced.
The accounts of Aldridge’s late night shooting sessions at the Tualatin practice facility are encouraging and ominous. He seems to posses an internal drive, to better himself in the name of his team. He is not satisfied with ‘just ballin’ as Rasheed was so often satisfied with.
While Aldridge certainly doesn’t need any of the crazy of Wallace, he would do well to pilfer a bit of the raw passion. He could do to play outside the lines, outside the offense from time to time. The Blazers will go as far as Aldridge (not Roy, not Oden) will take them. He poses the most dire mismatch potential of any Blazer since Wallace. He needs to break free from over thinking his role in the set offense. At times he needs to pounce on his opponents and be able to dictate when his teammates should go through him exclusively. It’s a trait that Wallace had, at times. And one that the game’s elite, like KG show on a nightly basis.
He is seeming looser out there. It seems like he is realizing he can impact the game on both ends. Also something Wallace excelled at, in Portland, and elsewhere. Aldridge is a pure basketballer. In the mold of Rasheed.
As he realizes his potential, so will the Blazers.
As the second ‘Sheed goes, so go the hopes and dreams of Rip City.
What kind of Blazermaniac am I?
I’m the kind of Blazermaniac that thinks BOTH Clyde the Glide and Rasheed Wallace are legends. I’m the kind of Blazermaniac that loves a team the harder they try and the farther they go.
I grew up living and dying by the early 90’s Blazer squads. I would geek out when I saw Jerome Kersey at a sushi restaurant. I would stand in line for four hours to get Kevin Duckworth’s autograph. I went to Rick Adelman’s Hoop Heaven Basketball Camp in the summers. And at one point I thought that Clifford Robinson was a certain future Hall of Famer.
There is no going halfway with my Blazers. I stuck around for the so-called Jailblazer Era, and even hung in there for the franchise flattening aftermath. So needless to say, this season is feeling extra special as I see all these wannabes jumping back on the wagon like it’s 1999 and we just signed Scottie Pippen to get us over the top.
You know what, I’m fine with all the posers jumping on board. If having the cool kids back on board makes the Rose Garden a little bit louder, I’m all for it. Rip City Baby! But I’m not gonna forget all the trash you talked in those down years. I won’t forget those of you that were crushed we drafted Brandon Roy and not Adam Morrison. Oh, yes, I remember you guys. How are you all doing now?
So I’ll be broadcasting from right here for anyone who wants to hear the take of a true Blazermaniac. There are a lot of posers out there in the blogosphere, and I aim to set the record straight when it comes to the Scarlet and Black.
Long live the Pinwheel!
mvp
