I know... I forgot to censor the offensive vowels in that most profane of team names. Probably get flagged for it, which I will deserve, but I'm trying to push past the hate...

Which got me thinking, what happened that has made me despise this team that, as a child, I pulled for in the NBA finals. Obviously, as we get older, we are more susceptible to cynicism, as we accumulate unpleasant memories and resentment of our foes. I was not capable of hatred at age 8 or 9, because the L*kers (better?) had never wronged me.

Well, obviously now they have. Like some sort of real life Inigo Montoya, I strut through life knowing that my own "six fingered man" is out there, and that he wears loud colors, and lives in a smelly metropolis to the south. It's palpable, every time I watch the Blazers play, and somewhere just beneath the surface of my conscious day to day observations, I am always looking forward to that next matchup with the Enemy.

Pinpointing the exact moment that they moved from "respectable foe" that I could get behind against the east in the Finals, to my last favorite team in any sport in the history of our planet is tough. Assuming many of you share my feelings, I figured I would create my first poll out of it...