What a ride. Thank goodness we’re not in the dark ages of September ’08 anymore. Next week, scratch-n-sniff Outlaw stickers!

With a winning regular season record and the first won playoff series in 9 years, the young Blazers have achieved all their goals for the year. “While some of our great fans surely had higher expectations for this highly talented young group, reaching the playoffs in the hardest conference ever was amazing in itself, and the second round exit is a learning experience that will prove to be invaluable”, said GM Kevin Pritchard on Monday. With dominant center Greg Oden winning Rookie of the Year and being selected for the All-Rookie First Team while teammates Rudy Fernandez and Jerry Bayless made the Second Team, Brandon Roy after his second All-Star appearance, two major acquisitions at the trade deadline and the extension of coach McMillan last week, the Blazers are ready for their breakout season now.
Fans are already waiting anxiously for the NBA Draft Night, a yearly spectacle to be held in New York City next in ten days…

One seeded Portland takes on eighth seed Phoenix as they hope to repeat their improbable championship run. In last year’s NBA Finals they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers becoming the youngest NBA Champions ever.

The Portland Trailblazers defeated the San Antonio Spurs in game 6 of the first round earning them a second round berth against the Charlotte Hornets.

Los Blazers Ganar! Que bonita victoria por las hombres de Portland!

Steady improvement and smart personnel moves over the last few years are paying big dividends for Portland. The Blazers ended the season a game away from the WCF and it is obvious their gains are far from complete. Barring disaster, this coach and these players will be in the NBA title hunt for the better part of a decade.

Sports journalists voted the Portland Trail Blazers’ improbable perfect regular season (82-0), and NBA Championship the year’s best sports story. … The accolade follows last week’s announcement by TIME Magazine, which named Portland General Manager Kevin Pritchard Man of the Year.

David Stern emerges from the court room with a giant smile and expresses his relief:
 “Well, we nearly lost the nba with this one, but now that the trailblazers must break up their roster, the nba can be competitive again”….

GM Kevin Pritchard’s deft moves and coach Nate McMillan’s ability to successfully blend the ingredients has the Portland Trail Blazers really cooking. After evaluating several recipes as the team started the season 11-20, the sweetest mix finished strong to obtain the 8th seed in the playoffs. Taking the number one seeded Hornets to a 7th game completed the prep work. All that remains is to keep the cake fresh over the summer and pop it into the oven for a very tasty 2009-10.

With the conclusion of the ‘08-’09 season, the Portland Trail Blazers took the first steps on a new journey through the record books. Consider the following achievements this year as the current squad began their quest to right the wrongs of seasons past: With their first return to the playoffs in six years, the Blazers have possibly begun a new run on their own NBA record of consecutive playoff appearances. Having just accomplished their 44th straight SRO at home this year, Portland seems intent on breaking their own NBA record of consecutive sell-outs. And, after notching 53 wins in this kindergarten year ( three all-star caliber rookies), can the regular-season win record be long for this world?

….

For the first time in NBA history, a team has come back after facing an 0-3 deficit in an NBA playoff series. The series began to attract national attention when the upstart Portland Trailblazers (the league’s youngest team) claimed the 2nd seed in perhaps the most competitive conference of all time. Both Portland and LA stormed through the playoffs as if these powerhouse teams were on a collision course with each other, destined to meet in the finals. But what was expected to be the series to end all series’ between these two storied franchises started out as a disappointment as LA quickly took control after two blowout wins at home and a buzzer beating victory courtesy of Kobe Bryant in game 3 in Portland. But the team and its fans never gave up hope as “Beat LA” echoed throughout the rose garden as the teams left the floor of that game. What happened next will forever be remembered in the annals of NBA history…

Portland Trail Blazer fans optimistically look forward to the 2009-10 season when it is hoped they will at long last be able to employ the services of Greg Oden, their much hyped, twice injured “rookie” center.

I wanna flag this so bad …

we dn’t want to pull a George Bush and say it too early

Coach Nate McMillan delicately, and masterfully, combined new ingredients and old this season, leading his Portland Trail Blazers to the playoffs for the first time in 5 years and delighting the Rose Garden faithful with a 34-7 home record. Once In the playoffs, however, inexperience and youth saw the Blazers swept out by the New Orleans Hornets in forgettable fashion.

Greg Oden grabbed the Mic at a local Karaoke club in Boston Saturday night, his gentle Tenor sang the tones to Queen’s “We are the Champions”. Note after perfect note spewed from the gentle giant’s oversized pallate. The Boston crowd roared into applause and realized they have no chance to Repeat when a first year All-Star center is this relaxed before game one of the NBA finals. Afterwards, as an encore, he nailed a Britney Spears’ cover of “You want a piece of Me”.

Amid screaming Blazermaniacs, falling confetti, and chants of Rip City, this young Portland Trail Blazer team found itself in a place it hadn’t been in for 30 years:
On top of the world.

The Portland Trailblazers exceeded expectations this year, earning a 4th seed in the West and sweeping the Houston Rockets in the first round. The playoffs will resume at a date to be scheduled once a determination has been made on the nature of the event which recently occurred at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in France. Authorities have been quiet after contact was lost with the facilty, and efforts have primarily focused on controlling the hordes of mutants now roaming the countryside. No word yet on the missing Ron Artest who traveled to Europe shortly before the event began.

A.) Had to throw some mystery in there
B.) had to throw in the obligitory play on words

That’s the sound the Blazers made in their dash through the western conference in the playoffs this year, dispatching Utah, Houston and LA in successive fashion. Now only four victories over the defending champion Boston Celtics keep Portland’s pride from a return to the pinnacle of the NBA.

Fans feast on a Buffet of Goodness!

Using the NBA regular season as their proving grounds (50-32), the young Blazers put it all together with great team defense anchored by Rookie of the Year Greg Oden and timely offense spurred by the Spanish sensation Rudy Fernandez to win it all. Regular season MVP runner-up Brandon Roy was all things at all times as the Blazers proved too versatile for the aging Celtics.

Before achieving any of the goals for this season, and falling out of the playoff hunt early, the woefully young and experienced Blazers suffered a PR disaster when their potential All-Star guards Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez, along with promising PF LaMarcus Aldridge and 1st overall pick Greg Oden were caught in a Denver hotel room molesting the mini-bar.

After each receiving league-record 100-game suspensions for their infractions, each player was subsequently cut by the team. This also led to the retirement in disgrace of former Coach Nate McMillan, who failed to discipline the players to avoid the incident.

Without their vaunted talent, the remaining Blazers were no match for their competition and finished a woeful 8-76, the worst record in NBA history. Worse news came when it was learned that former owner Paul Allen wished to move the team to Seattle, and was subsequently sued for all his billions of dollars and placed in the poor house by the City of Portland. Allen was then forced to sell the team to pay his legal fees.

New owner, Clay Bennett. former owner of the now-defunct Oklahoma Thunder, has vowed to make a good faith effort to keep the team in Portland, despite the team’s recent struggles. However, he’s insistent that Oregon taxpayers approve a 3.3 Billion Dollar tax package for construction of his own personal pleasure-dome as a requirement for continuing negotiations.

After firing GM Kevin Pritchard and re-hiring former Blazer GM Bob Whitsett, the city may actually be glad to see the backs of the ruin this team has now become.

——

Sorry if this went a little long, and I’m not really trying to be negative. Just wanted to point out how bad things could actually get if everything went WRONG this year, rather than everything going JUST RIGHT as some people are forecasting. Patience people, this team will be good, even if we’re bounced out in the first round this year.

Nate McMillan said in a press conference after his Blazers won the 2009 NBA Championship that moving Oden to point guard made all the difference. “No one could guard him. I mean, you had guys like Nate [Robinson] and Luke [Ridnour] trying to keep him out of the paint.” Oden’s 55% three point percentage was an NBA record as was his 354 three pointers made.

The breakthrough came during the All-Star break when McMillan, tired of rookie Jerryd Bayless’s inability to play point guard, saw Oden dribbling the ball twice in the All-Star game. “I knew then he could do it,” boasted McMillan.

“Just everyone look out next year when I put Channing at shooting guard.”

One missed shot; one second too little. But “next year may get us over the top,” says McMillan.

mmmm . . . donutssss . . .

In a change-of-pace, Miles wasn’t the one doing the smoking but rather being smoked, as the Blazers rolled over the Celtics in a relatively short five game series. Oden, fresh off the one of the most amazing rookie seasons in recent memory, was quoted as shouting, “Impossible is nothinggggg!”….nailing Garnett’s botched line from last year.

This is Rebecca Harlow, ESPN

Can Anyone Stop Portland?

“It was the only basketball court left in the city with two regulation hoops” says Coach Nate McMillan

Bad taste?

     The Portland Trailblazers enter tomorrow night first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers having swept the season series from their rivals. Los Angeles will be without Kobe Bryant again tonight as he is still in rehab for a shattered ego (think Vince Young) which occurred coincidentally on the same play that shattered the backboard in the Staples Center. A monstrous dunk by Greg Oden brought the hoop and Bryant’s self worth crashing down during the game on April 10th. Bryant was rushed to the locker room where he threw his jersey, bawled for an hour straight, asked a nearby reporter if anyone saw that then stormed out of the arena. Sources say the highlight on local news with the caption “That ain’t right” caused Bryant to sob uncontrollably and check himself into rehab under suicide watch.

The Blazers enter the playoffs this year after posting a .500 record the previous year and climbed all the way to the #1 spot to draw the 41-41 Lakers. All Stars Brandon Roy, Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge lead a promising young team on their first trip to get a ring. “Anything less than a sparkling sign of ultimate victory on my hand would be a travesty, a tragedy and a failure for my beloved fans of Portland” stated 6’11 Channing Frye. “Our focus has been and always will be getting the Buffet of Goodness one of those gorgeous NBA Championship rings. I got 10 fingers and 10 toes.. Greg and I can play 20 years right?” Frye added. Roy was more reserved. “Its the Lakers, so we know its an easy out in 4. The rest of the way may be tough, but once we get into the second round we know we have to step up our game and bring it every night.”

Speaking of rings, any fan out there watching the game against Denver saw little used reserve Nicolas Batum give his own ring. His 6 month girlfriend, who could only be identified as a mysterious “Sophia” was proposed to in the halftime ceremony at center court. “While I agreed, I told him that I wont wear this ring until he wins one for me” stated Sophia, a common poster to BlazersEdge (The most popular and intelligent Blazers blog on the internet.)

Game is tonight at 7. Buy your tickets for the second round today, because when youre playing the Lakers, you KNOW its only going to last 4!

posted on O’live:

Posted by rajzwaibel on 09/10/08 at 5:49PM

Taco Bells files for bankruptcy after giving away too many Chalupas.

This new young core of talented players brings new definition to chemistry and cohesiveness……

Large Hadron Collider fires up at full speed, discovers Blazers basketball is the center of the universe

Reports from the Blazers’ Front Office indicate that he doesn’t actually need surgery, but is getting it in order to help fill the Blazers’ off-season quota / OHSU punch card and ward off any bad karma.

…The Blazers return to the playoffs and subsequent upsetting of long time rivals The Lakers signal that it’s no longer “Rise With Us” because We Have Risen!

Several years ago, the Portland Trail Blazers were a laughing stock of the NBA. A bad team on the court, and players constantly in trouble off the court. Many had understandably written them off. Great organization, gone downhill. Until some changes got made. New coach and GM. An addition of an MVP caliber player in Brandon Roy, surrounded by a great supporting cast consisting of players such as Martell Webster and Travis Outlaw. The team led by those three, romped through the regular season, swept the Fakers in 4, outscoring them by at least 20 every game, and handling Dallas and Utah on the road to a stunning sweep of the Celtics to win the title. Brandon Roy All Star, League and Finals MVP. Portland Trail Blazers 2008-09 NBA Champions. From the ashes of the Jail Blazers days, to champs. Truly Blazers of Glory.

out for the season with a torn acl