Tuesday, October 28, 2008

On the Record...

I want to go on the record with my Blazer thoughts prior to tonight's tipoff. First, I am extremely excited about the potential of this team. Portland has serious talent at all positions, but it's unproven and young talent. So, the results will likely be mixed. Once they jell a bit, then we should be in for some real thrills.

Second, I firmly believe this team has the ability to beat any team in the league and not in a fluky off-night for the opposing club sort of way, but that will only occur if Coach McMillan can can mold these players, assuage their egos and coax the best performances out of them as possible and the young guys come to play consistently. I am confident the character of Coach and the players will make both of these things a reality.

Third, while I hope for a 5 or 6 seed in the playoffs, realistically a 7 or 8 is what we should get. Next year will be a completely different story though.

That said, Go Blazers...Beat LA!!!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Did the ESPN Editors Miss Something?

LA Clippers GM Elgin Baylor resigned yesterday or was fired. Who knows. Long has he been a punchline to NBA jokes, especially for Bill Simmons. Well, Bill Simmons is a gracious man who wrote a great column today about Elgin. Touching on his importance in the civil rights movement, the development of the NBA, and the development of players' rights.

Simmons recounted one conversation between he and Elgin regarding the lap of luxury today's NBA players live in, including chartered flights. To which Elgin responded:


"Sheeeeeeeeeet," he said. "When I played, we flew coach and carried our own bags! We landed two, three, four times! You ever hear about the time we crashed in a cornfield?"

(emphasis mine). It's not like the Disney conglomerate to allow those sorts of words, even alternative spellings, onto their website.

I have a screen grab below for verification purposes in case the editors end up changing it.