So, how's everything going?

Our previous Court Rivals thread dropped off the main page, so I figured it was about time to create another one. As always, here is the link to the spreadsheet.

Last night in Blazer's Edge Court Rivals action, we had six games (including two games between BE teams).

In non-BE-conference games, BlazersEdgers lost to Sharks BC-B Team, 108-120. Scotty McDunk was the leading scorer for the 'Edgers with 21, while Monty Everest lived up to his name with 4 blocks and 7 rebounds in the losing effort.

Just Blaze dominated Rockets last night, 128-59. Unfortunately, Rockets was playing with seven filler players. Just Blaze had eight players in double-digits, led by Roy Bot with 21.

The Edge lost to boboteam, 90-113. This was truly a one-on-one matchup, as each team only has one player. In this case, boboteam's nay bob outdueled The Edge's Pat Dowdy, who was an abysmal 0-6 from the field.

Finally, BEdgers beat Okayplayer Haters by a score of 140-112. The Edgers had seven players in double-digit scoring territory. Walton Sabodenworth had 16 rebounds to pace The Edgers, while Vanilla Gorilla had 10.

We also had two inter-BE games last night!

B-Edge Odenizers beat Red Unit 105-91. Basajuan Ferran was a defensive force for the Red Unit, collecting three steals and three blocks. However, the team's offense was stifled as Red Unit was held to only 12 points in the second quarter. Sugar Britches and dee veediay each had double-doubles for the Odenizers: 14 points and 10 rebounds for Britches, alongside 10 and 14 for veediay,

Finally, vERYkERRPLEX defeated Bedgers2 by a score of 96-90. kERRPLEX was down by 10 entering the half, but played stifling defense to allow only 12 points in the third quarter and 19 in the fourth. Jerryd Oden had 22 rebounds for Bedgers2, and Point Guard had 5 assists and 4 steals in the losing effort.

Tonight, there is one inter-BE game: you can look forward to BEdgers (6-2) vs. Just Blaze (3-5)! Keep it right here on Blazer's Edge, for all your Blazer's Edge Court Rivals needs!

The "Where for art thou, Rudy" FanPost got my Shakespearean muscle a-pumpin'. So for today's Junk Drawer, I decided to start off by quoting The Bard's Sonnet 130:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
I grant I never saw a goddess go:
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

 

Hey, its 1:00 AM and I'm waiting for my Court Rivals player (Pubert Jones) to train. That must mean it's time for the next edition of the Junk Drawer extravaganza! As usual, this is the place to post all of your fun stuff, Blazer-related or not, that doesn't really deserve its own fanpost. Cool!

So, tomorrow is the last day of my first summer term in grad school. I'm in a Master in Teaching program up here, and it's pretty okay! I decided to make my OT poll about teachers because hey, that's what I'm into at this point.

Okay!

Poll

The best teacher I ever had was one of my...

13%

Early elementary teachers (K-3)

14 votes

11%

Upper elementary teachers (4-6)

12 votes

9%

Junior high teachers (7-8)

10 votes

34%

High school teachers (9-12)

36 votes

23%

College professors

24 votes

7%

Grad school professors

8 votes

104 votes | Poll has closed

After hearing that Carmelo Anthony was the SF version of Z-Bo, I got to thinking. Amongst the other positions, who are the most Z-Bo-esque? We're looking strictly at me-first, offense-only, possibly-overpaid, can't-win players here. Bonus points if their team seems better off without them.

 

PG: Gilbert Arenas, Washington

SG: Michael Redd, Milwaukee

SF: Carmelo Anthony, Denver

PF: Zach Randolph, NYK

C: Eddy Curry, NYK

 

So, in conclusion: Good luck, D'Antoni!

Okay, not really. Bill Simmons' newest column is part one of his MVP column, and Z-Bo comes in as the second-least valuable player in the league.

Here's the money quote:

Any time the same player is widely credited for one team's resurgence (simply because he left), another team's ongoing demise (simply because he showed up) and the firing of a third team's GM (Milwaukee's Larry Harris, who made the fatal mistake of trying to convince his owner that the Bucks should trade for him), that should have been enough for him to cruise to the LVP Award. Zach, I'm sorry. I don't know what else you could have done short of stabbing Nate Robinson during a timeout.

No Blazers yet, but I expect to see Brandon and hopefully LMA in the next set (coming tomorrow). Although he did leave a lot of space between most of the players, so it's possible that we'll see no Blazer mentions at all.

TRADE MACHINE time, that is! (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/trademachine)

Yes, the Blazers have lost a few games recently. And although the trade deadline has passed, that doesn't mean we can't FREAK OUT about the recent losses and try to get rid of everyone not named LMA, Roy or Oden!

I'll post a couple to get us started:

Here's a fun one with Chicago:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2768~2795~3028~3032&teams=4~4~22~22&am p;te=&cash

A one-for-one swap with Seattle:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=3209~2795&teams=22~25&te=&cash

A trade that would say yes, Miami is finally ready to admit to a rebuilding effort:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=3196~2184~580~1987~454~550~3004&teams= 22~22~22~22~14~14~14&te=&cash

And finally, what's a Trade Machine thread without a four-team blockbuster?
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=1719~498~1723~3239~2986~1718~2772~1017~277 9~813~901~2768~550&teams=22~18~18~18~22~17~22~3~22~18~18~3~17&te&cash=

This last one's my favorite. The Blazers get Chris Paul, David Lee, Renaldo Balkman and Nenad Krstic, and give up nothing but DWB Jarrett Jack and Darius Miles! Best of all, it rescues our good friend Freddy Jones from NYC. This is the kind of Pritch-slap the league has been waiting for since... well, since the draft, I guess.

What about you? What crazy Trade Machine goodness can you come up with to improve our poor, poor Blazers?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3184246

"Former NBA star Isaiah Rider was in custody Sunday on outstanding arrest warrants after Berkeley police responded to a report of a disturbance between a taxi driver and a passenger."

Just another sad story in a long line for Rider. I thought things had been relatively quiet for him because there weren't any new stories developing... looks like that wasn't the case.

You've met Charles Outlaw...

You've met Tracy Outlaw...

You've been reintroduced to Bo Outlaw...

But I'll bet you didn't expect this colossus to join the Portland Trail Blazers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/photos?photoId=1768004&gameId=280102016

Read the caption to that photo, and then you'll see just how bright our future is. In fact, I think we've somehow freed up a roster spot with this new acquisition!

Hey, tomorrow is Halloween! In honor of our first game (in which we stood up quite admirably to the VERY SCARY San Antonio Spurs), I think it would be a good idea to list some ideas for Blazer-themed Halloween costumes for those of us that still need ideas for how to dress up this year. Here are the top 5 scariest Blazer-themed costumes I could come up with:

5. Sam Bowie's Knee: Wrap yourself in athletic tape with a huge bulge in the middle. Spend the night talking ONLY about Michael Jordan.
4. Rasheed Wallace: With a headband and Sharpie tattoos, this is one of the easiest costumes to pull off. Make sure to carry a towel around in case someone dressed as #3 shows up.
3. Arvydas Sabonis in his prime: Also known as 'The Ghost of What Could Have Been.' Wear stilts, tiny basketball shorts, a mullet wig and a sweet mustache. Speak no English, but school everyone in one-on-one with your silky-smooth moves.
2. The East Coast Bias: A costume for the tall and skinny among us. Slip on an outfit shaped like the states from Maine to Florida, and then talk exclusively about how the Celtics are going to win the title.

And the number one Portland TrailBlazer-related Halloween costume is...

1. A GOOF! Toss on your Greg Oden jersey and facepaint yourself some tears. Then go ringing on doors of some REAL Blazer fans - AAAAH!