This is definitely one of my top 3 blazer memories of all time, so I was shocked when I tried to find where I had previously written about it, and found nothing. It was that same game against Memphis, which was the last home game of this last season. My buddy’s mom scored courtside seats from her work and we were about 4 rows from the court, right behind PA, KP and company. That was also the same corner of the court as the blazers bench. One of my buddies had become fairly inebriated and was getting quite vocal towards Outlaw. As snappy and snark as I come across on this blog at times, I am actually quite shy in person and not really the type to try and get players attention during games(although I am rarely if ever close enough to do so). But luckily for me, my friend is that way and during an early timeout, he started screaming “Outlaw! Outlaw! Dunk it! We want a huge Dunk!’ and so on. Outlaw looked at us with a slightly confused look and Joel immediately came over to Outlaw and you could tell he was saying something along the lines of “don’t listen to those schmucks, concentrate on the game”. He listened to Joel and ignored us the rest of the half.

At halftime, during warmups, my friend started right back up with the same stuff, and although Outlaw never acknowledged us directly, we knew he got our message. At one point he stood at the side of the paint and cocked the ball behind him and stared at the rim like he was visualizing how nasty of a dunk he was going to pull off for us. My friend yelled “Ya, like that, dunk it”, and Outlaw chuckled a little. My loud friend actually isn’t much of a basketball guy, this was really his first year as a blazer and nba fan, and that was mostly because we were roommates and I am a nut, so he had little choice. He then started yelling “Its dunk time Outlaw, its dunk time!!” My other friend and I kind of chuckled at how silly it sounded, but we were having too much fun to be embarrassed.

The second half flew by, I almost got to experience what an Oden pick would feel like in between the 3rd and 4th quarters, and before we knew it, there wasn’t a lot of time left in the 4th and we had a healthy lead. With about 4-5 minutes left in the game, my friend started yelling “Nate!!! Put Outlaw in!!! Its dunk time Nate!!!! Put in Outlaw!!!”. With about 3 minutes left, Nate did exactly that(from no influence of my friend mind you), and as Outlaw hopped off the bench, he flashed us a little smile and jogged up to check in. My friend continued to scream ‘Its dunk time Outlaw”, when ever he thought Trout might be able to hear him. Two minutes later, we witnessed this not fifteen feet in front us.

After the first alley oop, we flipped, but when he threw down the second one, I nearly had a heart attack. As he landed after the second dunk, he looked right at us for a split second as if to say “Was that good enough for you???” It was, it really, really was. The row in front of us had been stoic most of the game, but after that second dunk, they all jumped up and turned around and started slapping us high fives.

Right after the horn blew and the confetti dropped, Outlaw walked towards us from half court and pointed at us with a huge southern smile on his face. Martell then walked up to Outlaw and we later figured out how that conversation probably went:

Web: Who are you pointing at?
Trout: That guy and his friends have been shouting its dunk time at me the whole game.
Web: What a bunch of dorks!

Martell turned towards us and they both chuckled about whatever they actually said to each other.

Its ok though, even if they did think we were dorks, it was still awesome. He stuck around and threw his shoes into the crowd and as he ran by us into the tunnel, he stared right at us, maintained that huge lovable smile, and gave us a fist pump as he disappeared towards the locker room. It was pretty dang sweet, and I get goosebumps every time I watch that highlight….

I like Channing.
I just don’t think he would have flown in from out of town for this practice, just as no one else did.

S-Rod for TP? In a minute. But I rec’d you anyway.

he plays aau ball for a pretty prominent team here in portland.

I figured seperated maybe, and I’ve wondered about his marital status as well. No reason, no reason…

(whistles)

Mortimer