FanPost

Cho's Amazingly Brief Tenure....


   This is big news. The sudden "Parting of Ways" between Rich Cho and The Blazers is obviously going to be discussed and debated. What it means about Paul Allen, what it means about The Blazers, what it means about where the team is, and where it is headed.  It's going to be met with the passion and angst that this fanbase always embraces. And deservingly so...BUT.....

    I'd like to throw out a suggestion. While we are offering our opinions. While we are questioning the direction and clarity of Paul Allen, the management of The Blazers. What it all means, what it should mean.

   What if, what it is all about- is exactly what The Blazers say it is all about? What if we step back from our initial stunned and dazed reaction, and take the Blazers statements at face value? What if we drink the kool-aid, only to find it may not be kool aid at all.

  Bare with me. The Blazers say, they "learned" from the KP incident. That once it was determined things were NOT working they simply did not want to drag it out. That they just wanted to end it as quickly and cleanly as possible. What if that is all this is really about. To make a admittedly NOT PERFECT analogy. What if this is like buying a new car. Maybe you researched, read reviews, test drove, made what you thought was a good deal got the new car in the driveway, but then discovered that the seats killed you? Or the blind spots drove you nuts? So maybe after a short period of time you find yourself selling the car, or looking to trade it in?

Maybe that IS all that happened with Rich Cho. Maybe it just wasn't working. For whatever reason. And maybe instead of months or even years of waiting, delaying  The Blazers decided to move quickly to trade Cho in...so to speak...

Because it seems to me, a lot of the uncomfortableness surrounding this decision today, is based on our memory of what happened a year ago. And is that fair?

If Cho wasn't working for Paul Allen, or fitting in, then doesn't Paul Allen have a right to make a change? If he feels he wants better or can do better, or would be better off, without Cho at the helm doesn't he owe it to himself and the fans and franchise to make that change? The fact that a year ago, we had an ugly slow disentegration of the relationship between The Blazers and KP, really shouldn't be attached to todays decision. Could it simply be that KP wasn't the person to be The Blazers GM and RIch Cho unfortunately wasn't either?  So I think in retrospect you can say, hiring Rich Cho to work 10 months and be dismissed was obviously a mistake, but if he really wasn't working out, wouldn't the greater mistake be to keep him for X amount of time, all the time believing he wasn't the man for the position?

Please listen carefully when I say, I'm NOT sure I believe any of the above statements I made. I am as full of anxiety and angst about this development as any Blazer fan. But as fans and experts and pundits throw out scenario after scenario concerning what this all means, or why it happened or shouldn't of happened it seems to me the only scenario not really being lent any credence is the scenario that says maybe all that happened today was a change that needed to be made? Maybe The Blazers spin on this incident, is simply the truth?

If The KP transitiion wasn't as ugly and "weird" as it turned out to be...would we be as stressed out today about what happened to Rich Cho? Or is it only in light of the ugly handling of KP's departure coupled with todays sudden and unexpected dismissal of Rich Cho that creates a perspective that makes most fans more upset about this then perhaps we should be?

Pretend the GM Rich Cho had replaced had been a succesful GM that had worked for The Blazers for 10 years amd simply was retiring for personal reasons. Given Rich Cho's lack of head GM experience, would the sudden annoucement of his dismissal suprise anyone? Woud we as a fanbase be more willing to believe the assertion that "it" was simply not working out with Cho and that The Blazers decided to move on?

Can we find it in our collective fan psyche to NOT judge todays actions and allow this franchise to demonstrate through future actions what direction it REALLY is heading in? Or have we been so shocked that we default to numerous "easier" scenarios to embrace that simply end with criticism of The Blazers and Paul Allen?

Maybe Cho's Amazingly Brief Tenure...was simply what it was...nothing more, nothing less.