Sorry. I’ll redeem myself by reccing your post. I’m also reccing it because it’s worthy of being recced. My husband is a transplanted New Yorker and couldn’t care less about sports. He’s been tolerant, if not always understanding, of my Blazer fanaticism for lo these many years.

” I was thinking bout this the other day and decided that it doesn’t matter WHEN you jump on the Bandwagon….but how long you ride.
I jumped on both the Blazers and Raiders wagon in ‘77 (15 years old at the time). I have been life long fans of both. I think I’m gonna cut some slack to these newcomers in hopes that they will say (in about 20 yrs)something like “I became a fan the 1st time I saw Greg Oden in a Blazers uniform’”

Does that answer your question?

I just think it will be sweeter for some. No offense, but fans who jumped on board that fateful day in May of 2007 are not going to have the same Blazer committment as those who’ve been around since the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s teams. Good post though.

I could not careless about hangers on. My joy comes from watching my team win. I buy their gear, wear it to opposing teams’ stadiums, yell at the TV and tick of the wife when she’s trying to sleep, goo-goo and gaa-gaa at post-game stats, bla bla bla.
I never had the slightest loyalty or fandom for the Bulls when they were winning everything. I admired their team and its abilities (much to my consternation) but I never did any of the above listed fan things.
I expect the Blazers’ fan base to grow as they get better. It almost has to. Welcome one and all. What I don’t like is talk like: “Yeah, well I’m a bigger fan than you because …”
That’s just silly. Got no time for it.
“Pride never helps, it only hurts.” - Marcellus Wallas, Pulp Fiction.
“The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.” - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Rock out with yer c*ck out.”—Drunk Girl, Doug Fir Lounge, 10 am New Years Day 1999

I know fatty is cringing at not being able to type absurd runs-ins and sentence structures, lots of ”*’s” in respone to this post…

... it will mean more to those who have been fans for the longest, but I have no problem with people becoming Blazer fans now. If they remain fans through our next rebuilding project, then there is no doubt they are true fans. If they stop being fans when our run is over, then they are bandwagon fans (which is fine- it just means they aren’t true fans).

Even after he stunk up the league last season? Obviously he won rookie of the year (based purely upon lack of competition and the proverbial green light), but the Sonics’ offensive efficiency was almost exactly the same with him on or off the court (not surprising – if you shoot 35-40% to get your 20 ppg, you’re probably hurting more than helping), and their defensive efficiency was ten points worse (which is a ton). So, whether you blame it on the coaches or whatever, the fact is that, for the most part, Durant was making his (already terrible) team worse.

Would you be more excited about keeping Pryz at the five spot and bringing in Durant at the three, or working Webster/Outlaw at the three and Oden/Pryz at the five? Consider, too, that KP will have the opportunity to bring in even more help either via a trade or free agency. Is it easier to sign or trade for a useful small forward, or a useful center?

No contest, in my book. Bayless-Roy/Rudy-Durant-LA-Pryz/FA is a good young foundation. Promising, for sure. That team could win some games. Bayless-Roy/Rudy-Webster/Outlaw/FA-Oden? That’s a potential dynasty. Screw winning some games – that team could win some championships.

Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I definitely lost interest in the Blazers during the darker years of this decade. I was a huge fan of the Clyde era Blazers. I remember listening to the games on the radio during the finals with Detroit and being so stressed out I had to walk outside for a bit (Curse you Bill Laimbeer!!!). Probably somewhere around 2002 or ‘03 I was no longer able to recite the entire Blazers roster (Trader Bob’s frequent changes didn’t help). I found myself drifting away.

I moved to Washington somewhere back then and even figured I should be a Sonics fan since I was so disappointed with the Blazers and, heck, the Sonics were my home team now right? Yet I could never take any joy in a Sonics victory and always found myself creeping back in the dead of night to check Blazers box scores…who did we draft….will we ever make the playoffs again?

The 2006 draft brought me back from curious onlooker to casual fan, and the 2007 draft cemented me back squarely in the middle of fandom. For me, the management of the team and the personalities we had were what made me shy away from the team, not just those pitiful win/loss records.

Later still I found Blazersedge. I believe a full recovery is at hand.

So to answer your question, when the Blazers win their next championship, I plan to celebrate with the best of them…but I probably won’t be wearing a Bonzi Wells jersey.

...and it’s good that Sonics fan thing didn’t work out!

if you’re rooting for them and they win, you should feel some reward. However, I do think the quality of the reward may differ.

If you’re a moderate NBA fan and your team is, say, Orlando, and they get bumped out of the playoffs early, but you still want to root for a team, you “adopt” a team. You don’t like any of the remaining teams in the East, you don’t like the remaining teams in the West, you never got to watch much of Portland as you’re in the complete opposite corner of the nation and they’re new and exciting, so you decide to take this plucky young Portland squad as yours. So this is your horse for the playoffs, they end up winning, and you feel satisfied. Maybe this is your new favorite Western Conference team, the team you root for when your beloved Magic are out. You still feel that “YES!” when they win.

If you’re a slight sports fan and always watch championships and not much else and Portland and Detroit make the Finals, and you hate Detroit (for obvious reasons) so you root for the Blazers, and they win, you feel some reward. Even if it’s the reward of seeing the Pistons lose, the Blazers gave that reward to you.

If you’re a long-term fan, someone who has devoted years, decades even, of time and energy and money and fandom and love and passion for this team and suffered through so many close calls and being second best and coming up just short and getting to the Finals at the absolute wrong time (MJ in his prime) and watching 15-point 4th quarter leads get blown and going through the Dark Years and you’ve lost sleep and been depressed for weeks and broken remote controls by throwing them at the wall after heart-wrenching losses (I’ve never done this, but would totally understand if anyone has) and felt like you did that one time in high school when your girlfriend dumped you so you didn’t want to wake up for days and you’ve felt torn about your relationship with this team because you love it so much and it makes you excited and happy and giddy but usually ends up not giving you that taste of ultimate victory… if that’s you, a championship might just be slightly more rewarding than the guy from the other two options.

I’d guess that most of the people in this forum are in that 3rd category. Even if you haven’t spent that much time as a fan, if your heart’s in it that way, if you truly are high on the ups and low on the downs, if when the day comes that this team finally captures that elusive championship and it goes down as one of your Top Ten Greatest Days of your Life, you might as well have spent a lifetime as a fan.

It will easily be one of my Top Ten Greatest Days of my Life.

I was at UW (go ahead and boo) while he was there. Was a huge fan. East coaster now, but when he got drafted by Portland, I started watching. Haven’t stopped. Before then I was just a college ball fan.

I mostly lurk here except for the jersey contests, and I only get to go to one game a year (saw that stinker in DC last year), but I think I’m a pretty decent fan.

I was a Lakers fan until I my beloved team had their butt handed to them in the playoffs by the Celtics this year. I saw what Jerryd Bayless was doing in the summer league and I thought, “Man, when they add that guy to Roy, Aldridge, Outlaw, and Oden, they’re going to be unbeatable.” I decided right then and there, that I was was going to be a Blazers fan, so that I could say that I was a fan of the team before they were good. I’m going to ride this bandwagon of into the sunset.