In trying times, it's helpful to search for things you're thankful for. Going through this, I discovered it's quite a list:
The Blazers are staying in Portland
We have Kevin Pritchard in the right position and the "culture" HAS changed
The relationship with the media has improved immeasurably
The Blazers have players who give fun, listenable interviews
Paul Allen has shown the willingness to spend whatever necessary to win. From all reports, the guy is stoked.
The JailBlazer era is officially over. We have 14 players with character and one marginalized headcase.
Brandon Roy will serve up opponents hearts on a plate for the next decade. He will do this with a smile and proactive leadership.
The team showed up 5 WEEKS EARLY. This never happens.
The team's blueprint is proven. Franchise center, a distributor, and the potential for great defense and an inside-out game. Championships are built from this formula.
Aldridge has shown all-star potential and seems like a great guy.
Rudy's already bought his ticket to PDX
We get to read Oden's blog
Our core players have "real game"; they're not just stat-men
Nate
Expectations are high, which is it's own blessing
The team has quite a few tradable assets
The Rose Garden is getting a fancy new scoreboard and video screen
We're no longer waiting for the light to come on with Z-Bo
The cold, dispassionate, statistically most likely scenario with Oden allows him to be a top 2 NBA center in 5 years.
Without deluding ourselves, we can see the path to a championship
At least 24 teams would gladly swap their roster straight up with ours, even post microfracture.
Summer of '09. Anybody want to win? Come to Portland.
Look where we were 15 months ago:
http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/teamyear.htm?tm=POR&lg=n&yr=2005
Wow.
Please chime in with anything thankful you'd like to add.