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Thomsen: Roy and Aldridge Learning to Lead Through Adversity

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Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen spent quite a bit of time with the Blazers last week. Here's the feature that resulted from his time in Portland... ----------------------------- While this has the makings of a bad year, it may turn out to be the most important season for this group of Blazers. If they ever do win a championship several years down the line, they'll look back and realize the demands of this season taught them to play and fight harder than ever. If they don't learn how to make a stand and fight hard now, there is a good chance they never will. We'll learn a lot more about them over the next month than we did all of last season, when most everything ran smoothly. "Since I've been in the league everything has been going great, according to plan, and we've been growing and getting better," said Roy. "This is that first bump in the road, and in order to be a championship team you have to have faced some adversity. And I'm thinking that this is it. This isn't the last stop, but this is something that we're facing to get to the level that we want to be at." ----------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter