WItness the Birth of a Dynasty
The stars have aligned in my favor. This evening, against all imaginable odds, the Portland Trailblazers will play a game in Kansas City. Dream come true for a lifelong fan. Shoot. There is no way I'm not the biggest Blazers fan in KC. I grew up in Memorial Colosseum. The walls of my bedroom were always covered in pics of my favorites. Darnell Valentine. Kenny Carr. Clyde. Terry. Duck. Buck. Kiki. Jerome Kersey. Team photos. Media guides filling the shelves. I had a full-sized Blazers flag hanging from my wall, for crying out loud.
We went through some rough years recently. I can handle teams that aren't good. I sport Royals gear all the time. I bought a KU Football jersey in 2003 and wore it proudly, even as K-Staters mocked me mercilessly. (Where you at now, purple? Where you at now?) But it's tough to handle your allegiance when your first love is filled with shady characters. The Jail Blazers era was embarrassing. I kept the gear in the closet until they traded 'Sheed. But then I went back to reppin' long distance from the Midwest, even through all of the lottery seasons.
Now, it's on. Ok, in all honesty we are still a year away. I have to keep reminding myself of that. But it's hard for all of us who have all of this pent-up excitement. When you see Rudy Fernandez going And1 Mixtape on cats in his first preseason game and then does it again, you get giddy. When Greg Oden is beasting fools after having not played for 14 months, you pee your pants a little bit. Will someone please tell that cat you should not average 13.5 ponits and 7 boards per game when your rehab limits you to just 20 minutes in each of your first two outings? Mercy.
See how hard it is to not get carried away? ESPN is predicting eventual greatness. My favorite fan site proclaims that "our second unit is probably going to be a little better than your second unit…and by “probably going to be a little better than” I mean “is going to crush like a dump truck running over an empty beer can”. Seriously, potentially bringing Travis Outlaw, Rudy Fernandez, and Jerryd Bayless off of the bench to score on people makes my stomach twist up in that “so much excitement I’m gonna throw up” way."
Yeah. So it's hard to keep a healthy perspective. And that's why I giddily gave my wife a recap of a Blazers preseason game the other night. To her credit, she was a very good listener even though I'm sure she had no idea what I was talking about. And to her credit she allowed Elli and I to have matching outfits today. Elli in her Blazers sweatsuit. Me in my MacGregor Sandknit (about as comfortable as it sounds) Kiki Vandeweghe jersey that I have owned since my cousin Sergio gave it to me in 1987. Classic.
So I'll be at the game tonight. And I'll try to keep everything I see in perspective. But it will be hard.
Renew and Restore.
We went through some rough years recently. I can handle teams that aren't good. I sport Royals gear all the time. I bought a KU Football jersey in 2003 and wore it proudly, even as K-Staters mocked me mercilessly. (Where you at now, purple? Where you at now?) But it's tough to handle your allegiance when your first love is filled with shady characters. The Jail Blazers era was embarrassing. I kept the gear in the closet until they traded 'Sheed. But then I went back to reppin' long distance from the Midwest, even through all of the lottery seasons.
Now, it's on. Ok, in all honesty we are still a year away. I have to keep reminding myself of that. But it's hard for all of us who have all of this pent-up excitement. When you see Rudy Fernandez going And1 Mixtape on cats in his first preseason game and then does it again, you get giddy. When Greg Oden is beasting fools after having not played for 14 months, you pee your pants a little bit. Will someone please tell that cat you should not average 13.5 ponits and 7 boards per game when your rehab limits you to just 20 minutes in each of your first two outings? Mercy.
See how hard it is to not get carried away? ESPN is predicting eventual greatness. My favorite fan site proclaims that "our second unit is probably going to be a little better than your second unit…and by “probably going to be a little better than” I mean “is going to crush like a dump truck running over an empty beer can”. Seriously, potentially bringing Travis Outlaw, Rudy Fernandez, and Jerryd Bayless off of the bench to score on people makes my stomach twist up in that “so much excitement I’m gonna throw up” way."
Yeah. So it's hard to keep a healthy perspective. And that's why I giddily gave my wife a recap of a Blazers preseason game the other night. To her credit, she was a very good listener even though I'm sure she had no idea what I was talking about. And to her credit she allowed Elli and I to have matching outfits today. Elli in her Blazers sweatsuit. Me in my MacGregor Sandknit (about as comfortable as it sounds) Kiki Vandeweghe jersey that I have owned since my cousin Sergio gave it to me in 1987. Classic.
So I'll be at the game tonight. And I'll try to keep everything I see in perspective. But it will be hard.
Renew and Restore.
Unfortunately, I'm in Arizona now.
Fortunately, the Blazers went to the Western Conference Finals last time I was living down here.
Unfortunately, it was against the Lakers, and we all know what happened with that.
I like your blog.