The State of the Blazers

The franchise is in flames. Brandon Roy is not Jordan. Aldridge is not KG or Duncan, or even Sheed or Boozer. Blazers just got throttled by the KNICKS. Let me repeat that. THE BLAZERS JUST GOT THROTTLED BY THE knicks. Fans are encouraged to pay hundreds and thousands of their hard earned dollars on a product that is more poorly made than a toy from china covered in lead paint. But no, Dave, and Ben, and Jason Quick, Joe Freeman, Brian T. Smith, Wendell Maxey, etc. etc. etc. will continue to cover the Blazers, encouraging us to watch their games and debate whether Miller or Blake or John Wall or whomever should start at PG next to the third best SG in the league. I say enough. For all the Noden's out there, I think tonight's effort will indicate how much of an impact he's had this year. Yet players are still ballsy enough to complain that they aren't getting any touches or that the flow of the game isn't the same as last year or whatever BS complaint they have. Sports are about winning. Debate as much as you want, but playing sports is a proxy for war. Football is a pitched battle where the goal is to claim the enemy's territory. Basketball is but a slight variation of this pitched battle. The skirmishes might be more fluid (excepting the Blazers' deliberate strategy), but they are skirmishes nonetheless. Battles fought without heart might well not be fought at all. This epitomizes our team's effort through the first quarter of the season. Even calling it "our" team makes me cringe. I am loathe to hear what reason the players give for this loss. The past is the past, and it cannot be drawn upon as an excuse for today or the future. Insert cliché about each new dawn here. But this stretch of play makes me want to puke. Say what one may of Pryzbilla and Blake coming back to Earth, but did anyone expect that Roy would march to the same beat? Paul Allen must feel like crap tonight. Having had and overcome cancer at 21, I know his struggles there. But to have cancer AND know that he's on the hook for $135 million dollars over the next five years to Roy and Aldridge would be enough to make me want to take a long walk off of a short pier. Black as this post may be, as a fan, watching this team is that painful. I can't even play "the homer" and argue against every call the refs make; the team's effort isn't worth it. I cannot begin to think about the philosophical aspects of professional sports and the escapism pervasive in our culture which is embodied in every fan's cheer and catcall. Most fans (and I am no exception) want to leave behind the day's troubles and the uncertainty of the future (even before our nation began to teeter economically) in watching our favorite team compete. But we want not ho-hum efforts or shoulder shrugs. These are our own responses to life's predicaments. We want to worship our local gods - the Blazers - for their heroic efforts and unfathomable feats. We expect them to face each hardship with more grit and determination than before. Yet fans are greeted not with steeled nerves or faces contorted in labor, but with hung heads and subpar performances. I don't want to win every game as I am not a Laker fan. I just want to lose in a fashion befitting heroes, not mortals. Hyperbole aside, please Blazers, play like you have a pair. Play for the guy who signs your paychecks who has his own life-or-death battle going on. Play for your coach, the former enforcer and warrior, who is probably peeing blood, if he's peeing at all, fighting his own mortal struggle. Pick something and play for it. Please. Right now, this team isn't playing for anything, not even themselves.