Portland <3 Rudy - is it more weirdness?

Tangent from a previous fanshot, but it's about to drop out of the top fifteen, so figured a comment there would get lost so ...

In JA Adande's chat he made the following comment "...for whatever reason, NBA fans haven't really taken to European players." Don't think that's true here. Sabonis was certainly a fan favorite. And Ruuuudy. And Nic.... Is this part of keeping Portland weird? (Personally, I prefer "quirky" to "weird", but weird is probably too entrenched to be replaced.) Or is it just that fans here tend to adopt ALL the Blazers and it has nothing to do with euro-ness?

Do fans of other teams embrace their former players like we do? JJack got a big welcome. Lionel Hollins got a big hand during intros when we played the Grizz. OK, few cheers for Telfair, but Damon usually got a warm welcome.

about 3 years ago jorga 6 comments 1 recs |

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Anyone who joins the team right now is going to be beloved.

Fans love this team, and everyone on it. That said we’ve been pretty good to our Euros. Plus, Batum and Rudy have made this team extremely fun to watch again. Alley-oops, chase down blocks, between the leg passes and big time 3’s. There’s not much to not love about these 2. Our international fan base got quite the boost with these guys as well.

by Bskey on Apr 6, 2009 6:13 PM PDT reply actions

I think Portland likes what is different because it is different

I don’t know about other fan groups to speculate on who they like. Well, except for Laker fans. Most of them probably don’t know that Shaq was on their team.

How about SCENARIO, Bill?

by tominhawaii on Apr 6, 2009 6:33 PM PDT reply actions

Will the Trail Blazers be like the Dandy Warhols and Pink Martini?

This town seems to have a long history of generating pop culture icons that are only “icons” in Europe and can only seem to garner “cult” status in the USA. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we end up in a scenario where Blazer swag will top international sales charts while continuing to be mediocre everywhere outside of Oregon.

by conspirator5 on Apr 6, 2009 7:42 PM PDT reply actions

Portlands not weird.

just full of hippies.

by GoBlaze22 on Apr 6, 2009 10:33 PM PDT reply actions

i think with this team chemistry right now

adding a hated figure in the NBA to the roster would even result in cheers here in portland… i wanted to say someone like rasheed wallace, zach randolph, darius miles, but they’re all ex-blazers… weird how we have a long history of bad seeds

by jbm01 on Apr 7, 2009 4:51 AM PDT reply actions

Vince Carter was available to come here

But management didn’t do it. After building up all this good will, why blow it on somebody like Carter (or any of the other guys you mentioned)? I like the team a great deal because of the guys on it. People don’t feel as strongly if it is the other way around.

by T$ 225 on Apr 7, 2009 9:36 AM PDT up reply actions