Whoa. Whoaaaaaaa. Henry unloaded a lengthy, insightful defense of his writing and site this morning and topic one, it seems, is his support of the Blazers.
The money portion...
There's this idea in a lot of comments and e-mails these days that I'd use this platform to not just share interesting stories, but to promote some kind of Blazer agenda (like to convert the team more fans, or somehow help them win more games). That accusation pisses me off. Mostly because I hope that reading TrueHoop has gotten across that I'm a measured, careful and honest dude. I have a journalism degree and various awards. People who know my career intimately know that I love my job, I love journalism, and I have always gone way out of my way to do things the right way. I'm just not sneakily promoting anything. My cards are on the table.
Never mind the fact that almost everyone who reads an inside basketball site like this is a long-term fan of some team. Converting fans? Talk about a fool's errand. And for what, anyway? Is my life somehow better if 2% of TrueHoop readers like the same team I do?
I know some of you out there have some really good stories about converting people into Blazermaniacs or about how you became a Blazers fan. Share them below and, if we're lucky, Blogfather will realize exactly how much better his life will be once he's helped convert the rest of the country.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)