Charley reviews the Blazers...

V.C.'s dunk was, but Brandon isn't.  However, he is scary-good in a basketball-fundamentals way.  He never looks rushed, he never looks worried, he's just efficient.  He doesn't bring any extra flash (even the hand switch layin was for a good reason - to avoid the block), he just does what is needed to get to the bucket.  He's a finesse player, not showtime.  I'll take that any day.

Last season, a friend of mine kept reporting to me about this East coast hoops "expert," Charlie Rosen (who I was unfamiliar with). This friend was upset that Rosen had dismissed Roy as a rookie of the year candidate.  Among Rosen's ignorant criticisms was that Roy didn't take and make shots in crunch time!  (Of course, Roy did so in his very first regular season Blazer game, and in many games thereafter.)  

Without actually knowing anything about Rosen, I told my friend, "Just listen to the guy's NAME; he's probably never ventured west of Ohio in his life.  No doubt he's only seen Roy play in one Blazer game and that happened to be the wrong one.  Mark it down; the day after Roy lights up the Knicks in the Garden, this Rosen guy will change his tune."  Sure enough, it came to pass exactly like that.

Now today, there was this new Rosen column about the Blazers.  Hmm--the day after the Blazers beat a team Rosen would be familiar with--the Bulls--in a TNT-televised game!  Sure enough, it's obvious that this was the first Blazers game Rosen had seen all season.  Each and every one of his comments is directly extrapolated from what happened in that particular game.  Rosen clearly has no idea what the Blazer guys do on a day-to- day basis.  For instance, he said Joel's minutes are severely limited by his offensive limitations.  In fact, Joel didn't play much in the Bulls game because he doesn't match up well with Ben Wallace.  But during the recent winning streak--especially early on--Joel often played big minutes and was the key to victory.

In fact, the only item in Rosen's column that doesn't appear to have been directly gleaned from watching the Bulls game is Rosen's observation that the Blazers take too many jumpers to be contenders.  Of course, that didn't come from watching the Bulls game: it came watching Barkley's comments during TNT's half-time show!  :-)

--LP