The Vig

Oh come on, like a part of you didn’t expect this.

Time was Blaer fans were as classy as they were knowledgable.  Apparently those days are over.  A decade of dominance?  When will they win their championship?  Sheesh.

A couple of things.

1. As long as Kobe Bryant is in the league, it is his trophy to lose.  He just turned 30 two weeks ago and he’s got a pretty decent cast around him for the next few years.  And the Lakers will make another move in the next few years to get their next super-star.  So the Blazers have to get past him.  See also #3.
2. Utah is going to be really good for the next several years.  They just locked up Deron “the next great Blazer point guard!” Williams and Boozer will get paid in 2010 as well.  They’re going to be every bit as good as the Blazers during this stretch.
3. There is nothing stopping another Eastern Conference team from assembling a team for a one or two years run like the Celtics did last season.  When LeBron moves to New Jersey/Brooklyn, that franchise will become a destination for guys fishing for their rings.  You could easily see Kobe heading to Brooklyn in 2011.  Easily.  You think that team might win a ring or two?  There will be lots of misfit puzzle pieces floating around the league for the next several years and lots of places for them to land.  To wit…
4. The Kumbaya-era of the Blazer franchise will be coming to an end.  At some point, one or more of the following will be asking for a ticket out of town:  Outlaw, Webster, Bayless, Fernandez.  Now it may well turn out that two of them will be gone just as part of the process, but there’s a log jam at the 2-3 and there’s no way Nate will be keeping them all happy.  Especially not this season.  Someone’s going to start griping.  Especially when there are any number of teams out there (Utah?) who could use a man like Webster.

The Blazers definitely have a wide-open window coming up, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that they’re going to win a championship.  I’d like to see Brandon Roy play an injury-free season first.  I’d also like to see Greg Oden play period.  Let’s maybe wait a little while before we go getting all giddy over the prospect of a Blazer championship.  At least that’s how we did it back in the day.

He’s been getting lots of run the last day or so for endorsing Obama.  This morning he introduced Laura Bush at a conference downtown.  That’s one cool dude.

Bill Simmons thinks so.

From what I was told by multiple people in New Orleans, the Blazers made a strong push, and Kidd made it clear to everyone involved he didn’t want to play there. Now, I don’t know the exact trade offer, but I’m assuming it was something like this: Kidd and a smaller contract (somebody like Antoine Wright) for Raef LaFrentz (monster contract expiring in 2009), Steve Blake ($13 million total for this year and the next two), the rights to Rudy Fernandez, a lottery-protected No. 1 and $3 million — which would have pushed Portland into the playoffs this season (even at this point of his career, Kidd is a significant upgrade over Jarrett Jack and Blake) and made the Blazers a genuine contender if/when Greg Oden comes back strong next season.

Here’s the irony: Kidd didn’t want to play in Portland because he wanted to win a title and, by all accounts, his heart was set on playing in Dallas. Fine. But just for the hell of it, let’s say the Blazers swung the Kidd deal and signed Antawn Jamison for their entire mid-level this summer, giving them a nucleus of Roy, Oden, Kidd, Jamison, LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, Jarrett Jack and Joel Przybilla next season. Um, wouldn’t the ‘09 Blazers have had a higher ceiling than the ‘08 or ‘09 Mavs? Wouldn’t that have been a better fit for Kidd because those Blazers could have run with them?

Oh my. First, the deal wouldn’t have involved Blake. They would have moved Jarrett Jack. Second, the rights to Rudy Fernandez? That would have been a deal breaker. If what they say is true, he’s the two-guard of the future.

The point of the current process is to be prepared to make a run in two or three years, not next year. The path for the next two seasons is still way too treacherous, especially with Kobe and Gasol tearing things up down in LA and a motivated Shaq Fu in Phoenix. So why sell out 2012 for a second round playoff exit next season? Makes no sense.

That said, wouldn’t it have been fun to see Kidd running the point?

PS  Casey hates Simmons.  But that’s not exactly news.

Full-on Blazermania is almost back. It’s like that movie Backdraft where the fire is just waiting for that gush of oxygen to make it explode.

Or words to that effect.

Last night’s game was #1 of my 20-game package for the season. The way the thing works, I paid $100 for 20-games in the 300-level. The seats are never in the same place twice and I don’t get any sort of season-ticket holder privileges. But I am in the building. So that counts for something, right?

Last night I sat parallel to the retired jersey numbers in the back of section 317.

Twardzik will always be my all-time favorite Blazer and when I figure out how to order the 4XL Mitchell and Ness special, I’ll be displaying my love at every game. In the meantime, I’ll just be content to start a grassroots effort to bring him back to Portland to replace Anotonio Harvey as the radio color man. Brutal does not even come close to describing Harvey’s style on the air. He’s frequently unprepared and rarely offers insight beyond gibberish. And as long as we’re on Blazer broadcasters, it’s only because no one in the local media has Comcast that there’s been no mention of how bad the Blazer TV production is. Sideline reporter Rebecca Haarlow is well on the way toward becoming a YouTube sensation to rival Miss South Carolina (she is that bad) and Michael Holton isn’t much better in the studio.

I haven’t spent much time up in the 300-level in the last several years. It’s always closed for Winter Hawks games and the Blazer games I’ve seen have been so sparsely attended that lower level seats were practically being given away. The folks at Global Spectrum did a fantastic job upgrading the luxury areas the season before last. And this season they’ve gone even further in revamping the main concourse. They’ve added a couple of beer gardens and completely redone the concessions. It looks really good. The 300 level, though, still has some work ahead of it. What, for example, is this display still doing up there?

‘Sheed’s been gone since 2004, kids. Brian Grant, who’s palm print is to the right of ‘Sheed, left in 2000. That’s 7 seasons ago. Yet the display is still up there. We’re on our second GM since 2000. Let’s get this taken care of, a’ight?

Some other thoughts, in no particular order:

Darius Miles will play for the Blazers this season. You can take that to the bank. Don’t believe me? Read this. If they’re smart, they’ll play him on the road to start. Far away from the several hundred who booed when he was on the screen going through his Eddie Murphy “Trading Places” bit. “GI Joe with the kung-fu grip.” The perfect time to bring him in would be on the East Coast road trip starting January 13 in Toronto. It would get him showcased in front of some Eastern Conference GMs ahead of the trade deadline and who knows, he may not come back. That would be the best case scenario. But I’m guessing they’ll put him in to get us used to having him around when they get back home on January 25th.

The question then becomes who’s minutes does Miles take? Webster’s? Jones’? Outlaw’s? Who?

Wally Szcerbiak is still in the league? Now that I look at it, he was part of the Ray Allen deal. It all makes sense now. The point is that guy can fill it up. Wow.

Did you know James Jones leads the league in 3-point percentage?

Sergio Rodriguez is Jason Williams. He’s never met a shot he didn’t like. He even had me yelling at him in the fourth quarter. “Shoot it! You know you want to!” No wonder Nate doesn’t want him out there. The team needs a distributor at the point, not a shooter. And not a poor decision maker. I can live with turnovers, but poor shot selection will make a man tear his hair out.

Why does Brian Wheeler never yell Boom Shaka Laka when Przybilla dunks? Employee #10 had a much more spectacular dunk in the first quarter than the one Roy threw down in the second. Yet Roy gets the extra dap. Why is that?

BeBe Winans has got some pipes. Normally I’m not a fan of overwrought national anthems, but I make an exception for Mr. Winans. Maybe he can come fill in for Katie Harman at the Winter Hawks game next Monday.

Greg Oden is worth his weight in gold. His “Day Before Christmas” bit was pure comedy genius. And whoever figured out to rhyme Charles Barkley McLovin with microwave oven deserves an extra holiday bonus.

It was fantastic to see Paul Allen animated. An engaged Allen is a good thing.

Is Christmas In Hollis considered old school? I don’t know how to feel about that.

Casey Holdahl looks freaking weird in a coat and tie. I wondered walking into the arena who got the better gig. Marentette or Holdahl. I’m guessing Marentette hasn’t had to wear a tie in a while. I’ll give the edge to him. But it’s close.

So that’s that. I think my next game is Sunday versus the Sixers. I gave away Friday’s tickets as a Christmas gift. Hopefully the Blazers will be working toward #13 when I see them next. Maybe they can bring in Twardzik to celebrate. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Did you get the chance to see Blazer GM Kevin Pritchard on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption yesterday?  It wasn’t especially enlightening.  He ruled out any chance of Greg Oden suiting up this season.  He talked a lot about “the plan”.  And he wore a pink necktie.  Someone in the media department needs to get him down to LensCrafters for some anti-reflective lenses too.  He looked pretty disheveled.  Maybe he wants to portray the mad genius.  Whatever it is, I suspect in a few years when we’re in the post-Pritchard era, anonymous insiders will smack him around a bit for his lack of style.  Just a hunch.

Why do I speak of the post-Pritchard era while the Blazers are in the middle of the 10-game winning streak?  It’s because yesterday the boy genius was talking about a “10-year plan” involving Oden.  In that moment, he looked and sounded like a Silicon Valley CEO appearing on CNBC in the Fall of 1999.  There is no way to know what the team will look like in a decade.  There just isn’t.  And should Pritchard stumble, it could end quickly and badly.  How could he stumble?  Well, the Knicks, with any kind of competent management, could have some cap room available right as Roy and/or Oden become free agents.  That could be a problem.  The Nets are opening a new building and will have some room too.

I guess it makes us all feel good to believe Oden, Roy, and Aldridge will all still be here in 2017.  They won’t.  There’s too many drafts and too many variables between now and then.  Just look at the current list of longest tenured players in the NBA today.  How many have been in one spot for a decade?  ‘Nuff said.

I’m not saying I’m not going to enjoy the ride.  I am.  And I hope the Blazers raise some banners in the next few years.  But to talk about an entire decade is just a little much.

Everyone’s in a tizzy over the Mitchell report, yet no one has batted an eyebrow at the “Greg Oden has put on 30 pounds of muscle” story.

“Oden, who only recently shed his crutches, can’t run and is limited to cardio work or pumping iron. McMillan said the change in the physique has been noticeable and wants Oden to back off just a bit and work more on being toned than having his muscles pop out of his suit.”

Riiiight.

That was Matt Leinart’s message to the Cardinals’ coaching staff on Sunday night. He’s since backed off the most damning of them, but, as fellow Cardinals fan Will Leitch points out, he doesn’t look much better today.

“I don’t remember saying those things?” Come on, man!

As I’ve pointed out here, the point of the league is to win now, not at some point down the road. Especially when you have the horses to win now. It may well be that Leinart is the second coming of Elway or Marino. He hasn’t shown it to me yet.  Elway and Marino were competitors.  Leinart seems to want the gig handed to him.  It doesn’t work that way.  Not in the NFL.  There are guys in college and high school right now working hard to grab his gig.  And he’s gonna have to outwork them if he wants to remain an NFL quarterback.  Spending two days a week out of town with his baby’s mama isn’t going to cut it.

The guy is 5 years older than Greg Oden and has 1/10th the maturity and decision making skills. That does not bode well for the future.

I didn’t even get past the headline in Canzano’s blog entry this morning before I wanted to gag.  Two weeks ago, he was supposed to meet the Bird Man.  Now he’s teaching life-lessons to first graders.  Or are they teaching them to me?  I’m so confused.

Hey JC!  Greg Oden is a pro basketball player, not Mother Teresa!  Would someone at KXL or The O please sit Canzano down and ask him to talk sports again?  I realize it’s his life’s ambition to win a Pulitzer.  Sandy Rowe probably even put a Pulitzer bounty somewhere in the fine print of his contract.  But enough!  If Oprahfying the sports page is what it takes to gain some sort of national acclaim, then please count me out.