The Vig

I never did get around to properly writing up the Utah-Chicago game I saw down in Salt Lake ten days ago.  The Jazz are something special and their fan base definitely are our equal.  They’re passionate and fiercely loyal.  I do believe Portland has a better arena.  The Delta Center Energy Solutions Arena is a little smaller than the Rose Garden (19,911 for basketball as opposed to Portland’s 19,980) and much boxier.  I prefer the sight lines at the RG.

The current Jazz squad has been much improved with the addition of Kyle Korver.  In the short time he’s been in town, he’s become a crowd favorite.  Watching him work his way through a maze of picks and screens to get his shot was something to behold.  I’m going to have to get a good look at Webster and Outlaw doing the same thing next time I attend a Blazer game.

Like us, fans in Utah are waiting for their team to fully blossom.  Local sports host David Locke calls is Project 2010.  It’s the year about $26.5 million comes off Utah’s cap.  Now they’re gonna have to resign Boozer and maybe Okur, but beyond that, the sky will be the limit.  By contrast, the Blazers shave about$55.25 million off their cap a year earlier, but they’ll have a ton of guys to resign.  That said, they’ll be getting a top-flight free agent with that cash.  It’s all part of the Blazers plan.

SLC has three sports stations going 24/7 and a ton of local programming.  Fans down there are not only passionate about their Jazz, but they can talk up all angles of Utah and BYU athletics as well.  They really get after it.  The thing I found really interesting though was the lack of talk and respect for the Blazers.  “Project 2010″ focused primarily on defeating the Lakers and Suns and to a lesser extent Dallas and San Antonio.  Only once did I hear the Blazers mentioned, and it was only as a casual aside.  Lack of respect?  Just slipped their mind?  I’m inclined to pick the former.  Despite the fact the Blazers are in the same stinking division, for whatever reason they don’t see what we see.  I wonder why that is.

Something I’ve been thinking about as I watch the recent flurry of deals around the Western Conference.  Why should fans in Portland and Utah have to wait another year or two for their teams to improve themselves?  Why should we continue to pay full price while we’re stuck in holding patterns, waiting for Raef LaFrentz, Steve Francis, and Darius Miles to come off the books?  I mean I understand all the contractual stuff, but still.  It’s depriving fans, I think.  Obviously that thought needs to be fleshed out a little more, but it definitely bugs me.

John  Canzano, lifting a line from a John Carpenter movie, has a little note in his blog this morning about the progress of one Channing Frye.  You may remember Frye as the “who ‘dat?” portion of the deal that sent Z-Bo to the Knicks for Steve Francis’ salary.  Rest assured, Kevin Pritchard knew who he was when he brought him into town.

With the departure of Luke Schenscher (a guy who, by the way, may find a home in Minnesota with Garnett now gone), Frye is now my favorite Blazer.  Why?  Because he’s self-entertaining.

I deliver take-out a couple of nights a week and most weekends.  It’s a pretty sweet gig.  No stress.  Decent bucks.  So very Portland.  Anyway, a few weeks back now, I got to take food to Channing’s place.  He was new to town, and had just bought his new place.  How could I tell?  There wasn’t a stick of furniture in the entire place.  Actually, I take that back.  He had a small card table and a folding chair.  And he mentioned he had a bed in the back.  Besides that?  Empty.  Not even silverware.  Seems all his stuff was on a truck from NYC and wasn’t due in for a few days.

But there he was.  Home sweet home.  A man who needed nothing more than a table and a chair.  And a restaurant menu.

As we exchanged small talk, I mentioned how happy we fans were to have him in town and asked how he liked Portland.

“Oh man,” he said, “I love it.”

And he meant it.  I so badly wanted to say “just work hard for us and we’ll love you forever”, but I kept my mouth shut.  I just handed him his chopsticks (I was out of silverware and he said he knew how to use the sticks) and wished him well.

Channing Frye, folks.  My new favorite Blazer.