The fact that the young Blazers played pretty smart, pretty hard, and with a lot of spirit last night gives us a chance to start something rolling that hasn't been seen around here (at least not en masse) for plenty of years: honest, heartfelt fandom. I have a couple suggestions:
1. We need to bring back the SIGNS in the Rose Garden. I remember games against the Lakers in years gone by where the arena looked like the WWF had come to town because every third person had some kind of placard in hand. Opposing announcers used to comment on it quite a bit, as ours was the only arena in the league that participated to that degree. The tickets are $4-10 apiece now. So why not sink an extra 69 cents into a piece of poster board, borrow somebody's Sharpie, and make your thoughts, slogans, drawings, and fandom known to the world?
(By the way, as long as the Rose Garden won't tear up your sign for doing it, if you were to put, say, something like "blazersedge.com" at least on the back of your sign, so fellow fans behind you could see it while you held it up, that might be nifty. I hate those people who disrupt things by parading with their stupid advertising signs on TV [so please don't do that...that's not what this site is about] but if some modest, subtle version of this site's name started to enter the public consciousness, perhaps as part of a larger sign theme, that would be great. If Garden security won't let that through, though, then the signs are more important than the exposure for the site.)
2. Today I am officially announcing the beginning of the Blazersedge "Socks for Socks" campaign. For those who didn't see it, Jason Quick's season preview included a long piece about how otherwise-nearly-perfect rookie Brandon Roy somehow lost his dress socks in the locker room and was forced to wear a pair of white, NBA-issued socks with his suit instead. No more! Blazer fans unite...this charming young lad needs our help.
How it works is simple. Go out and buy a pair of socks. They need not, indeed should not, be fine dress socks (though some can be). We need to make sure our young rookie is prepared for any and every occasion! Purple socks, sparkle socks, musical socks, Spongebob socks, Scottish green and plaid socks...anything works. Purchase said socks and send them to Brandon Roy, c/o The Portland Trailblazers at the following address:
One Center Court, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97227
Include a little note along with the socks about how much you appreciate his play and you hope these help, and you're set.
Again, what does this cost you? The price of the socks plus about a buck to mail them. (Socks aren't fragile. You can put them in a manila envelope.) Let's say, oh...around 2000 people read this blog. If only 1 in 20 of you does this, that's 100 pairs of socks for young Mr. Roy. If it's 1 in 10 that's 200 pairs. This will accomplish a few things:
--It will be amusing.
--It will get some kind of attention somewhere. (If it gets big enough I could see a halftime feature someday.)
--It will show our very nice young rookie why it's good to be a TRAILBLAZER (as opposed to a Laker or Knick) and what makes, and has always made, this town and its relationship with its players special.
If he ever started actually wearing any of these things that would be a major bonus.
To facilitate both of these projects, I offer the following:
If you take a picture of you with your sign in the Rose Garden (or enemy arena if you're brave) and e-mail it to me, I will put it on a special page at this site under the label "Blazersedge family".
If you send socks to Brandon, by all means take a close up picture of them before you mail them! E-mail that to me and I will put it on our special "Socks for Socks" page. I want a visual record of B-Roy's new collection!
Hey, the team's not perfect and they still may not win much, but that was never the base of our fandom to begin with. We've got some good guys here who haven't known what being a Blazer (or a Blazer fan) really means. It's time to remind them, and ourselves, again.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)