I hope this gets the attention it deserves.

well done. rec’d.

yes, lets think about this: do you know why people are coming to this site to read this? its posted on blazersedge. one of the sites you just bashed for being full of trolls. nice.

people want wholesale changes? really? following the playoffs, fans (and the team) identified specific weaknesses. backup pg and backup pf. need for toughness. what fans have been calling for trading the cornerstones of the franchise and “overhauling” the team??? wanting to trade your boy travis outlaw doesn’t mean people are pining for wholesale changes.

we would be thankful of the blazers’ deep pockets if they weren’t haggling over paying broy for an extra year in his contract (dispute the information and call the reporters liars I guess, but this is simply the information that has been reported by local media). by the way, you’re probably the guy who thinks cleveland is gonna play hardball with lebron this summer because, hey, its NEGOTIATIONS right? brandon roy is our lebron and its ludicrous to give that guy anything less than the max or even fake like you’re not going to.

can’t say you’re wrong about anything canzano writes

why would I wish d miles well because he’s human when in the following paragraph you bash a number of other “humans” by talking about how far we’ve come and how terrible those guys were. the thing about darius was (and I say WAS cause he um, isn’t playing basketball anymore…I wonder why?). the guy was a clown, no one can deny that and you’re not going to convince anyone that memphis signed dmiles cause they thought he could play. I’m not saying that miles didn’t think he could still play, I’m just saying he was a pawn and you’re missing the bigger point. He (like Raef Lafrentz last year), become a walking contract when their contract implications outweigh their abilities on the court. stop feeling sorry for a guy who was paid MILLIONS to play a game just because he gets booed for being an a hole.

travis outlaw sucked well before fans started hating him…for sucking. this is not a chicken or the egg scenario.

look, we were interested in jkidd but he wasn’t interested in us. the fans won’t boo kidd when he comes to the garden. why is that you think? oh yeah, because he didn’t get on a plane to come to ptown and then verbally commit to the blazers before leaving in the 11th hr for toronto. you don’t think theres a clear distinction there? really? this was just another player who didn’t want to be a blazer? theres lots of players who don’t want to become blazers for whatever reason, you don’t see them all pulling a “hedo” though.

I agree, the summer is not over. unfortunately, all the good free agents are signed. KP spent the last 2 years talking about the summer of 09 for free agent prospects. the fans are (UNDERSTANDABLY) disappointed so far. theres still time to make some deals though, we’ll just have to see what happens…

Thanks for your lengthy response — you make some great points.

With regard to the first part about the trolls… I should point out, if it wasn’t explicit enough (and it probably wasn’t), that I don’t regard many people at all as trolls on here. In fact it’s plainly obvious that the vast majority of Bl’edgers are great contributors and passionate fans. But we ALL know that there are a handful of people that don’t know how to hold their drink and spill troll-like sentiments or just go too far with wanting to make trades and the like at the drop of a hat.

Wholesale changes: do you remember the leadup to draft day with the air of expectation that KP was going to Pritch-slap a whole bunch of GMs and make all of these crazy changes? I’m as guilty of hoping for some magic as the next guy, but you’ve got to admit that there are a lot of people out there who were sitting there feeling a bit disappointed that we didn’t see some crazy moves come off to improve the Blazers.

Let me stop at this point and just say that most of what I’m saying is an attempt to play Devil’s Advocate. I’m trying to be a wet blanket on purpose, to an extent. We’re all super-enthusiastic about the Blazers (or we wouldn’t be here)… so sometimes we just need to take a step back and look at the way we’re supporting our team. That was what I was trying to do with this list. *

On Darius Miles — I don’t for a second think that Memphis had pure basketball intentions when they signed him either — I guess my point was more so, “we shouldn’t be wasting our negative energies on Miles when we have a team of our own to support positively” — let him be. Ben and Dave had posts to this effect when it all went down.

Oh, and Travis Outlaw? He’s definitely not my boy… that’s all I’ll say on that one! ;)

I’ll leave it at that for now and the floor open for other people to comment — enough from me!

Nice article, But this is what fans do in any sport they always want to be the one who said “I called it first” or “that was totally my idea” yes its annoying and you wonder why they can not just be happy, but it doesn’t make them less of fans, there just excited about their team and want to be involved in what ever way they can, Fans will do this even after we win a championship because we like to debate the issues with the team, what would really worry me is when they stop doing that because then you have to wonder if they still care as much.

I only have one beef. Replace “longer than a Damon Stoudamire stogie” to “longer than a Damon Stoudamire doobie”. The difference between the two is huge.

lol. I like the post. Blazer fans need some tough love every so often, and it is easier to swallow when it comes from within (but not from Canzano). I identify most with warning #8. We all have our less favoured players, but be constructive with criticism instead of demanding a trade (we don’t like it much when players do that, after all). Re: #5, though, I think fans have the right to bitch and moan when we think our official press representation is inadequate or is even undermining the team. Again, we should try to be constructive, but Canzano’s columns are going to have a lot more of an effect on perceptions within and outside the organization than anything I or any other casual Bedge poster says.

except number 6 is a crock…in the end it was about a paycheck at our expense thanks to Memphis and DM. Gullibility is cute in its innocence, but lets be real folks. It was about gettin paid and had nothing to do with careers or love of basketball.

Rube says what?

Who kept with the team during the jail blazers era aren’t necessarily the team’s best fans. Many of us painfully and intentionally boycotted the team.

And it worked. The fans who said “we’ll be back when you give us decent human beings for whom to cheer” saved the franchise for everyone.

You’re welcome. Please refrain from referring to us as “fair weather” fans in the future.