I love our Blazers, but last night, I don’t know if the TNT mikes are better than Blazer Broadcasting, or what, but I could not believe how many times, in the first quarter alone, I heard a Blazer bitchin and moanin about a call. 

The Fave Blazer play now seems to be:  drive the lane, initiate contact, yell “Hey”, miss shot, glare at ref…

Now you know I love Dre, but he had 3 whines before the Cali fans sipped their first Chardonnay and bit into their tacos…  Brandon then quickly caught up to him.  Bayless came in and took over the Hey contribution for the point guards.

Roy took over late in the third with the rare double-hey-on-a-play… he tried to take a charge (“hey”), and to his credit, got up and took another one (“hey”) which got him the call…  (Shortly thereafter, he got his 37th point on 17 shots, so I realize my timing in bringing this up may not be the greatest…)  I did notice he was more successful when he raised the pitch at the end – “hey-AY” got him the call shortly after the charge.  And, I noticed that on his spectacular half-ending mid-court heave, he didn’t say a word, and got 3 freebies…    

My fear is that the Blazers may be dangerously close to the whiner line… 

I do think officials talk, and like it or not, in most people’s eyes, yelling “hey” is showing the ref up.  “Hey” (you dumb blind) “ref, I got fouled and you missed the call” is what they’re saying, right?  I think it’s starting to work negatively.  It worked positively last year for BRoy, no doubt.  But it seems to me that it’s not working for him anywhere near as much this year.  I think the refs have talked...

I suppose in general its fine to yell ‘hey’ when you get hit, and I understand by now it’s totally a reflex action from Brandon and Dre.  But EVERY PLAY somebody is whining or looking at the refs.  It’s interesting, because we very rarely get T’s.  (And I wonder if we should get more, to relieve some of the pent up frustration of the zebras?)

Reputation matters – a LOT – in the NBA.  The refs know who is out there, as evidenced by the multitude of star calls.  You do not want to turn your team or personal rep into that of a whiner, always showing up the ref.  Make no mistake, official's calls still affect the outcome of many, many games, Donahee conspiracy or not.  You don’t want the entire Blazer org to get a bad rap from the refs, because it will come back to bite you in a close playoff game.

So Ben, any interest in charting “Hey’s”?  BRoy and Dre could get nightly triple doubles if you do!

I’m thinking maybe we need some Blazer T’s shirts with a picture of BROy and Dre yelling “HEY!” in a circle with a line through it…

Thoughts?  Is it just me?