Not having Jones is a huge factor in the current funk.

But in my opinion, the turning point was the last-second loss to the Cavaliers on our floor.

Up to that point we were still one of the elite home-court teams in the league.

No matter how often we lost on the road, we could always count on a successful homestand to lift us up in the standings and bring us within sniffing range of the playoffs.

But after Lebron single-handedly put Brandon Roy, and the rest of the team, in its place on national television, we have:

I, for one, can be counted among the ranks of the disappointed and dejected.  Not because the team has lost games, or because they are simply falling back down to the original and more realistic expectations most of us had at the beginning of the year, but because this team has lost HEART.

They are young, and yet they cannot muster energy to box out, dive for loose balls, play defense, or run the floor.

For people that get paid millions of dollars to play a stinking game, for Pete's sake, they OWE it to us to at least hustle.

I don't care if they lose.  But at least ACT like you care.  During the Drexler era I never once booed or criticized my team at a home game.

But since the Denver loss, I found myself actually SCREAMING sarcastic remarks at our players, tired and frustrated with the complete lack of commitment and energy when called upon to get a stop or pull down a board.

Martell Webster was my favorite player on the team.  I met him after AI beat us at the last second.  It was cool of him to come out in a tired and frustrated state.  But in speaking with him and, subsequently being cut off by him mid-sentence with a handshake, I realized that I had more in common with fatty than I ever wanted to admit.

Despite what you read on the internet or in the newspapers, our players, for the most part, don't care about us.  With the exception of Brandon Roy, who is a gift from above, and perhaps Outlaw or a few others, our players are no different than your average over-paid, over-coddled, over-hyped pro athlete.  The current crop of Blazers are just younger and more naive, giving off a false aura of innocence that I regretfully and admittedly bought into.  Yes they are head and shoulders above the likes of JR Rider or Bonzi Wells.  But is that really something to hang our hat on?

Ungratefulness not only rears its ugly head in unpleasant encounters such as the one I had with Martell, but in a team's lack of effort on the floor.

Until that changes, the Blazers get a piece of my heart & soul no more.

fatty, consider this an apology and an acknowledgement.  this is soldier boy.

you were right, and I look forward to your return.

yeah, making my peace with fatty.  i guess every cloud does have a silver lining.

PEACE OUT