When you are a kid two things determine who you cheer for: Where you live and who your family roots for.
I was born in 1985 in Salem, the perfect time to become a Blazers fan. Clyde Drexler was becoming the face of the franchise and Sam Bowie had a great rookie season.* Obviously I do not remember the first few years of my life, so I could not tell you much about the Blazers from 1985-1989. I briefly remember watching the Blazers in 1990 in the NBA finals against the Detroit Pistons, but I do not have any clear memories from that series.
*We all know how Bowie did after that... and about that one guy the Bulls drafted behind him. What was his name again?? Who knows... I think it started with an M and ended with ichael Jordan. He was a pretty good player if I recall correctly.
It was the 1992 season that I remember. Clyde Drexler. Buck Williams. Jerome Kersey. Terry Porter. Kevin Duckworth. Cliff Robinson. Those were a few of my childhood heroes. Especially Clyde. We went to the Finals again this year losing to that guy drafted behind Bowie and the Bulls. I cannot tell you any details about the series, but I remember it being close and I remember my older brother pacing the room shouting MY BLOOD IS BOILING!* The next year my family moved north of Seattle but I continued to cheer on the Blazers. A friend of mine bought me a Sonics shirt and Shawn Kemp poster. I put them both in my closet. In 2nd grade I had to write about a personal hero. While my friends wrote about Abe Lincoln and MLK Jr., I wrote about Cliff Robinson. In 3rd grade I wrote a Tall Tale about the Blazers and how they had super powers.** The next year I hated the Blazers.
*My quotation key does not work... and I cannot paste it in... any blogging advice??
**In this tall tale I put Chris Dudley on the team and his super power was long fingernails. I did not like Chris Dudley.
I hated the Blazers because ALL of my childhood heroes were gone. Kevin Duckworth was gone before anyone. Then Buck Williams and Porter left in free agency, Kersey was drafted by the Raptors, and then the nail in the coffin: Drexler was traded to the Rockets for Otis Thorpe. Even coach Rick Adelman was gone. For a brief while I became a Rockets fan because of how much I loved Drexler. I even threw a huge fit at Sports Authority because my mom would not buy me a Drexler jersey... it was the only fit I ever threw. The Rockets won the Finals with Drexler and he played a few more years with them before retiring.
My allegiance to the Blazers disappeared after the Drexler trade. As stated above I became a Rockets fan, but I also started to become a Sonics fan. I lived near Seattle and The Glove and Reignman were fun to watch... but I never became a big fan of either team. Drexler retired, the Reignman became fat and the NBA in general started to stink. And the worst team to be a fan of at the time was the Jail Blazers. They had no players you wanted to root for, if I were a parent in Portland I would not let them watch the Blazers because I would be afraid they would start to consider them role models... meaning their role models could be Isaiah Rider, Rasheed Wallace, Darius Miles, Damon Staudimire, Rueben Patterson, Bonzi Wells, Qyntel Woods. It was a bunch of talented players, but players you wanted to fail. Even if the NBA continued to interest me I do not think I could have cheered for the Jail Blazers... they were embarrasing.
From 1997-2004 I did not pay a whole lot of attention to the NBA. I think the Knicks won the Finals as a number 8 seed. Maybe I dreamed that... I dont know. I think Allen Iverson won an MVP or 2... maybe... I could check Wikipedia, but I dont care. During this time I was a college basketball fan and would tell everyone that college hoops was better than the NBA. And I was right. The NBA was in the dumps until it got LeBron, D-Wade, Melo, Darko (just kidding) and other skilled and likable players. They were interesting and I started to become a fan of the NBA again in general. Detroit beat the Lakers in the Finals and proved that in order to win you must be a team, not just a few good players.
Still my Blazer pride did not re-emerge. I became a fan of the NBA... it was not until the Blazers made a draft day trade with the Timberwolves to get Brandon Roy. I watched Roy light up my high school team in the playoffs for 40 points, I watched his career blossom as a Husky and I knew wherever he went I would root for him and he went to my childhood team. Roy was the beginning of the re-emergence. The Blazers also had hired Nate McMillan who I liked as a fan in Seattle and drafted Martell Webster, a high school player from Seattle. Then this happened. It was the first lottery I ever watched... and probably the only one I ever will, but it was huge moment in my fandom. The Blazers drafted Greg Oden with the number one pick and before the season started he was injured. But the young Blazers still exceeded expectation. B-Roy led the way after his Rookie of the year season and they won 13 straight in December. B-Roy was on the All-Star team and they were in the hunt for the playoffs for most of the season. I only watched a few games last year, but payed attention online. I read this article on ESPN and I knew the Jail Blazers were long gone. The Blazers were once again players I wanted to root for, players I wanted to succeed. Now I am back into full out Blazer fan mode. I admire those who continued to cheer them on during the Jail Blazer years and I know many people are jumping on the bandwagon because of the youth and likability of this team. I do not consider myself a bandwagon jumper because the Blazers are a part of my roots. Cliff Robinson was my hero in 2nd grade. I cried in Sports Authority for a Drexler jersey. Its good to be a fan again, even if it means the ups and downs of fandom... even if Oden does not become David Robinson... I am a Blazers fan.
