Through a dismal Blazer season, Brooks says he still loves it here
For nearly three decades, Scott Brooks made visits to Portland to play against the Trail Blazers — for the first 10 years as a player, then another 18 as a coach.
Schonz calls it a career: ‘Good night, everybody!’
As would be expected, Bill Schonely did not have the most restful night of sleep on Sunday.
Blazers are losers —And they’re tryin’ to be
It has been the strangest of seasons for the Trail Blazers, who have been around longer than Rubik’s Cube, push-through beer can tops and the digital camera.
Pros vs. Joes No. 13: Despite the Blazers’ rocky road, Brooke Olzendam’s having a ball
If there is a poster person of popularity among fans in the Trail Blazers organization these days, it’s probably not a player or coach.
Talking sports: Trail Blazers trading frenzy, MLB strike and Adley Rutschman, Pioneers’ Jay Locey to the USFL
Weighing in some sporting issues of the day …
• There must be a method to Joe Cronin’s madness.
Or as Ricky Ricardo might say, “Somebody’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
Covering a number of subjects, including bad basketball in Oregon, the Trail Blazers’ future, Dan Burke, Gary Payton II, Patty Mills, Nike & Alberto Salazar …
A few sporting items on my mind as we ring in the new year …
• The state of Oregon is known for some pretty good basketball, but its major teams are displaying little of it so far this season.
On the Pre Classic, Rich Brooks’ 80th birthday party, Adley (and Ad) Rutschman, Damian Lillard, Kevin Calabro and the Trail Blazers …
Sporting items on my mind as we swing into a new week …
I’ll put the Prefontaine Classic up against any 2 1/2-hour sports event in the state of Oregon — and yes, I’m including a basketball game involving the Trail Blazers.
The 47th annual invitational — with a crowd of 8,937 looking on at the newly refurbished track and field shrine called Hayward Field — featured nine meet records and seven world-leading marks in the first international meet since the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games two weeks ago.
On Aldridge’s retirement, the Trail Blazers’ lot in life, Tinkle’s contract, OSU women’s hoops, Transfer portal, Duck and Beaver baseball and other things on my mind …
Some (relatively) quick hitters about subjects on my mind in the sporting world …
• Item: LaMarcus Aldridge retires after 15 NBA seasons after experiencing a heart irregularity.
• Comment: Aldridge had played five games with Brooklyn after a buyout by San Antonio and signing as a free agent with the Nets. He had played well, starting and scoring 22 points in 23 minutes in a blowout win over New Orleans.
But after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during the Nets’ game against the Lakers last Saturday and some complications the following day, Aldridge chose to call it a career.
Pondering what’s happening with Damian Lillard, Ethan Thompson, Chris Duarte and Terry Porter …
Ruminations on roundball heading into the weekend …
• There is plenty of consternation in Rip City over the NBA’s “snub” of Damian Lillard as a starter in the upcoming All-Star Game. You fans who are up in arms: Sit down right now. You still have a chance to win the “Biofreeze Hoop With Dame” contest, where you can shoot it out with Lillard and win up to $100,000. (Personally, I’d rather have it out with Brooke Olzendam in ping pong.).
I’m no fan of no fans at Moda, and neither is Damian Lillard
Having left the newspaper business in April after 45 years, I’d not been to a Trail Blazer game at Moda Center until Sunday’s date with the New York Knicks.
Portland PR honchos Jim Taylor and Jake Gifford were good enough to credential me and allow me to experience first-hand what it’s like to be in an NBA arena without fans due to COVID-19.
Blazers-Lakers should be an intriguing matchup. And my pick for the series winner is …
A few observations as the eighth-seeded Trail Blazers take on the challenge of facing the top-seeded L.A. Lakers in a seven-game first-round playoff series to which everyone across NBA circles will be paying attention …
• In a word, watching the Blazers’ nine-game run-up to the NBA playoffs has been fun.
Not because they made it — after 45 years in the sportswriting business, I’ll probably never think like a fan — but because Portland’s seeding games have been so watchable.
On the NBA, Major League Baseball, NILs in college athletics, and Oregon State’s layoffs…
Thoughts on some sports issues of the day…
THE NBA SEASON RESUMES:
Most of the specifics have been released through various media outlets. Walt Disney World Resort, 22 teams, no fans, eight regular-season games, then playoffs, the whole shebang beginning July 31 and ending as late as October 12.
On Dwane Casey’s message, the NBA’s re-opening
Weighing in on two issues of the day:
I’ve known and had a good relationship with Dwane Casey for almost 30 years, since he was a member of the coaching staff (along with Terry Stotts) of George Karl with the Seattle SuperSonics. I have a great deal of respect for Casey, now head coach of the Detroit Pistons, and the type of man he is.
With Dame, CJ and good health, Blazers’ outlook bright in ’20-21
Last week, toward the end of a Chicago-based podcast in which I was the guest, I was asked if the Trail Blazers might break up their backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
My answer was that I didn’t see Lillard — an institution in the Northwest, one of the franchise’s greatest-ever player — going anywhere, but that the Blazers might choose to trade McCollum “at some point” to bolster their talent at the forward spot.
In retrospect, I wish I’d thought the question through a little more.