What do Blazer Fans Really Want?

My immediate reaction to seeing the title was “Oh that is easy, Front Row Tickets”.

But I decided to not be so flippant about it. Finding that balance between Winning is number 1 and wanting a team of guys I really like is definitely an individual preference thing. The best examples are Sheed and Zack: the fans that love those guys definitely place a higher importance on winning. Those that say good riddance, place a higher importance character. I fall into the latter category but it takes all kinds to make up a fan base. Imagine how boring it would be around here if all of the comments posted to a FanPost was: Agreed.

It’s kind of a false dichotomy. I’m a combination of both and I don’t feel like I value winning over a great team to root for or vice versa. I want both. I don’t see a problem with tweaking the roster to get a few more wins, but on the other hand, I don’t want to be a team like Boston that Frankenstein assembles a team in the offseason for a couple years of glory.

I think the biggest problem is how does a fan who likes high character, portland-type guys primarily while winning is secondary deal with the natural evolution of a basketball team? Eventually a player is let go or traded or retires and invariably other players are brought in. We’ve said goodbye to players we liked before and we’ve welcomed new players with open arms, yet it’s still our team. There is definitely a balance to be struck between win at all costs and acquire players we can be proud to call Blazers. If by the trade deadline Outlaw and Frye are traded to get us (hopefully) closer to a ring, I will be sad to seem them go, but excited about the new team and the better shot at winning.

In a small digression…..
Does this kind of thing apply to college sports? It seems like it does. I don’t find myself nearly as excited rooting for the Ducks, for example, because I just feel like I’m cheering for a uniform instead of a team.

but I see “the team” as the guys who start the year in the fall. Each team is different.

I don’t mind roster shakeups in the summer, but once we’re rolling, I want to stay with the team we have. Too much trade talk during the season just seems mercenary and missing the point of being a fan. That’s just me, and as I’ve said before, that may be more a product of the way i followed teams when I was a kid rather than any deeply thought out thing.

a lot of times that neccessitates that the team is a winning team, but I’d gladly have D’Antoni coaching the Blazers, even if it meant we never got any rings. (I think)

I believe his love of Portland is completely sincere. Life is longer than an NBA career and in life I think Channing will always represent our city in a way that every Portlander does, regardless of wealth or celebrity status. Whereas, for example, Scottie Pippen represented the Blazers for a time, but not the city of Portland. He was a mercenary, a hired gun. He just lived here for a while.

Both representations are valid. It’s very difficult for a player to supremely fill both of them simultaneously, though B-Roy, being a NW native, naturally inherits such a status. As for being an ambassador for Portland, Channing just might be the most apt Blazer ever for the task. He just seems Portland-like. But that doesn’t mean he necessarily represents the Blazers’ roster well, and I think fans should understand that for the next few years the grass really might be greener for both us and Channing should he play somewhere else. When his career ends, we get him back; we’ll see “ex-Blazer Channing Frye,” shake his hand, and relate to him more like a neighbor than a star athlete. Hell, maybe he’ll run for mayor someday.

Is there a category 1.5 for fans who are caught in the middle :) The Channing article made me think as well, he’s exactly what most (myself included) said they wanted from a player as an alternative to the Jail Blazer era, but when you look at the Abdur Rahim/Diccau team that had one of the worst records in the league and the reaction in terms of apathy/slow ticket sales, it makes me wonder how sincere that sentiment really is. I think everyone wants that perfect match of great team/great guys, but the reality is winning covers a lot of warts. That said, a losing team with jerks (late Whitsit/Steve Patterson era squads) will get people howling quick.

   “winning” = straight shooting team who don’t individually kick it with 9 of 10 dudes that have criminal records and can focus on the task at hand when it is at hand..

   “me” = you too ;)

x-cell-nt post.

I understand fans in the 2nd category (in many ways that’s more rational than my position of just wanting the guys wearing “Portland” to win it all), but as much as I hate the likes of Kobe and KG, I could easily learn to root for them if they were to bring a title to Portland. I’d rather the Blazers win a title with likable guys, but I’d be willing to sacrifice some likable players for a title for sure.

First and foremost, it’s that second point; I am “a fan to celebrate the fact of Portland’s identity.
I feel a connection to the city when I watch the team, I feel an affection
for the players who—in a special sense—represent me.”

But winning isn’t “secondary”; it is a continuation and extension of this identity.
When the team wins, I win, as do all who share this commonality: We win.
Which is what makes winning (when and if it comes) so much sweeter for me, and for us,
than it does for those in the first category, the I-am-a-fan-of-this-team-BECAUSE-they-win crowd.

And that’s what makes that prospect so troubling, as you point out.
When that first type of fan’s team wins, what connection do they have to it?
What does it do for them, absent any representation of them BY “their team”?
It’s business, nothing personal; they’re just savvy bettors – and I am not a gambling man.
And when my team wins, we fans in the second category are represented.

Represent.

about watching a team grow. I think that makes you have more interest / investment in the team. Kind of like raising a child and then finally watching him go off to college. Interesting.

Even though we’ve been bad till fairly recently, Portland fans have different expectations than, say, Warrior fans— despite their recent 1 year success as well. They mostly want a fun team to root for, since they are USED to missing the playoffs and being bad. Portland is very accustomed to being at least playoff-level-good, so we come to expect that (for the most part) no matter who is on the floor.

Now, after the 21 win season, things were so bad we just wanted dudes we LIKED out there, but once you get that again you want wins wins wins to go along with it.

You just can’t go too far one way or another. You MUST find that happy medium or the fan support will collapse.

Will Celtic fans love the KG championship(s) as much as the Bird ones? Of course not. KG ain’t a lifelong Celtic, he’s a smart well timed trade that paid off big time. Of course, they’d rather win the title over having the worst team again, but not all championships are equal in the heart of a fan.

However, it is very easy to say “I’d rather win with OUR players” when a player like KG isn’t up for grabs, and the guaranteed good team that would follow. We can watch from afar and prefer our way, but would love the championship all the same.

With die-hards and cult fans, just having guys they like is enough. I’m sure there are some here who wouldn’t mind winning 20 games a year if they could see Sergio play 40 minutes and lead the league in assists. They are the exceptions within the general fanbase though— people want wins, and they love who they have based on that.

When you got special, easy-to-love guys like Roy and Oden and LMA and Joel and Outlaw and Batum and Rudy and so on, it makes a more special connection to the team, but one that people can rationalize and create for themselves if the wins (but not the likeable players) are there. If Joel or Roy sucked, no amount of plucky hard work or localness would matter in the long run except to a very small group of fans.

KP has shown thus far that he can put together a team that IS the happy medium, or on it’s way to become so. There will be sacrifices along the way (Ime, Freddie Jones) for the sake of winning/development, and perhaps eventually we’ll sacrifice having, say, the best record in the league to preserve the assurance of team chemistry. We ain’t there yet, of course.

Personally, I love how we’re doing it— developing your own players and keeping them together for the long haul, and making changes once you see what you need. It’s not always that simple of course, and it requires getting a LOT right the first time… in the draft. We’ve been able to do that, but it’s a crapshoot that won’t always pay off for most teams that either don’t have the talent to pick the “right” players or simply suffer from bad luck.

It’s a mixture of talented player analysis and luck that has made it so we can have the luxury of having a good team that WE developed and fostered ourselves. It feels good, much more rewarding this way.

But there isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with need to get the players you need from elsewhere, since it is just how the world works. You don’t WANT hired guns to give you your title, but eventually you need to win or people get fired, fans get restless, and everything collapses.

It’s a very tricky balance, but I think the scale is tipped heavily in the favor of winning— except for a season or two. Bulls fans will be ok with sucking because Rose is awesome. If they still suck 2 years from now, even if Rose becomes the best PG in the NBA it won’t matter. Ya always need more.

Once again, we’re very lucky to be Blazer fans. It’s easy to enjoy the “happy medium” when you got such GOOD players who are also loveable and likely to stick around. If this current roster levels out at 55 wins a year and a 2nd round playoff exit each year, their loveability won’t be enough.

It isn’t fair, but Portland fans do want it all. Thus far, we’ve gotten that as much as we can reasonably expect. A lot of other cities will be happy just being decent for once in their lives.

Mortimer

Courtside seats for $50 ea. – Elgin

I’ve been thinking about this alot too. But in a slightly different way. I’ve just been thinking how thankful I am for the team that has been assembled for us.

As a fan, you root for your team because it’s your city and its your team. You don’t have much control over who’s on the team. If you abandon your team because you don’t like the players, I would argue that makes you a fairweather fan. If you support your team regardless, then it sort of devalues your fandom. So it is a Catch 22.

But the point that I look at with regard to this current Blazer squad is that as hard as it is to remove onesself from the biases of homerism, I truly believe that no matter where I was from, if I had my choice of any roster in the NBA, I would choose this one. That is truly a rare thing in sports, and we should all be really thankful for it.

It comes primarily from the fact that these are OUR players. They are not retreads (or retards..lol) or mercenaries. And of course it also comes from the character of the guys, most especially Brandon.

So, we clearly have some great times ahead as Portland fans. Going forward I hope that if we do make a major move, it is not for somebody who – when people look back over their career they associate him with another team, Steve Nash for instance. Nothing against him, he’s a great guy, but he’s not OUR guy.

Having said that, I have to admit that I’ve been a guy who’s been advocating signing Hedo Turkoglu as a free agent. (a retread) So, like most everybody, I’m not a purist one way or the other. It is a balance. (At least Hedo hasn’t won a championship with another team yet — but then again neither has Steve Nash.) Heck I don’t know. Go Blazers!

As a loyal fan I expect these 3 things for any team i’m rooting for:

1) Management who’s honest and open with it’s local media and fans
2) Players who are of good character and a joy to root for
3) Fair pricing for tickets and merchandise

Winning isn’t something I can necessarily expect each and every year – but those 3 things I think we deserve year in and year out for the time and money we invest.

we have good people and wins. I like to win and HATE losing. I honestly love the group of good guys that the organization has put out on the floor .

Im always a Blazer fan though..

Sophia

A good friend of mine is in her 40s and has been a huge Steelers fan her whole life. She has tons of Steelers gear, wears Steelers clothes, and even has a Steelers tattoo… and yet she could probably only name a couple players on the roster and doesn’t really know much about the actual game of Football. She doesn’t really know jack about any of the players and therefore doesn’t really care if they’re good guys or not. If one of them got busted by the law, she’d probably be most upset about how much poop she was going to take from other people over it, although she’d also be upset about them making “her team” look bad. All she really follows though, is wins and losses, but she is just as dedicated of a fan in the down years.

Another friend of mine just cannot comprehend how anyone can be a sports fan. I actually had a conversation with him that wasn’t all that far from your post, and after working him down for a while, finally got him to at least admit that if his mom was on Jeopardy, he would have a rooting interest in her. FWIW, he grew up in a city without a major sports team.

I personally am a fan of the Blazers, Oregon Ducks, and Detroit Lions. The first two come with having grown up in the Portland area, but the last one is purely a product of adopting the preferences of the person that introduced me to the NFL.

What’s my point?

Sports fandom is not necessarily about winning or good character guys. We want both (to varying degrees), but it’s not why we’re fans. Wanting those things is the “effect” of fandom, not the “cause”. IMO, whichever is stronger is as irrelevant in that we want it all.

My fandom of the Blazers is easy to understand… the Blazers represent Portland, I’m from Portland, therefore the Blazers represent me. I’m in the Air Force so I also root for the Air Force Academy in college sports. They represent me. That’s why I’m a fan.

My fandom of the Lions is just as strong though. Here I am at the end of a decade of constant losing and the worst season in NFL history, and they’re still my team. I still wear the T-shirt. Back then, they had Barry Sanders and I loved watching the Lions because I loved watching Barry. Over time, after having sheered for them enough, I gained a personal investment in them. Now it’s just a matter of loyalty I suppose… for better or for worse.

Developing players is a joy – seeing them grow from draft picks to stars is pretty cool. But a few of my all-time favorite blazers came from (and in some cases were stars for) other teams – think of Buck and Luke and Kermit and even Pryz. Still, those guys will always be Blazers first to most of us.

I am OK with the Blazers always looking to improve the team by trade, though would hope they would recognize the value of having community-minded, team-first players. If Outlaw or Blake need to be moved to create a better team long-term, then we better do it.

Roy – 5
LA – 5
Oden – 3
Blake – 3
Batum – 2
Sergio – 2
Rudy – 4
Travis – 1
Channing – ZERO.
Randolph – Haha.
Diogu – 3
Bayless – 2
Przybilla – Infinite. If Przybilla was our whole team and had to play five guys by himself every night for 82 nights, all on the road, I would proudly wear his jersey and cheer for him all over the United States and parts of Canada.

That would make me happy.