Ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 NBA Champion Portland Trail Blazers.
Wait, what's that? It's just Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Blake and his father. Oh.
That was the scene at the Blazers' Tualatin practice facility on Thursday morning, the first day that the gym has been open for players to use for the 2011-2012 NBA season after the lockout. 15-20 media members gathered to watch one NBA player shoot pull-up jumpers and run wind sprints. Good times.
Here's Blake on Brandon Roy and the Blazers potentially using the Amnesty Clause.
"When it comes to Brandon, I just know who ever has him is going to be very lucky. Whether he's still here or he goes somewhere else, I would love to play with him again. To me, he's still one of the better players in the NBA. Other than that, I don't know all the situations."
Former Blazers forward Martell Webster, now of the Minnesota Timberwolves, chimed in on Twitter last night...
Hey really dnt say stuff about other teams. But #B-Roy-earned every bit of what hes owed. He is the reason ripcity is! The NBA knows! Smh 4R
Here's a shot of one of the walls in the media room at the practice facility. The wall art has not yet been amnestied.
Jason Quick of The Oregonian has posted a look at the Roy situation with more quotes from Blazers president Larry Miller and Brandon Roy's agent...
Up in Seattle, Roy is confused and hurt. After all he has done for this franchise -the game-winning shots, the playing hurt, the countless public-appearances, serving as the guiding light out of the Jail Blazers era - he didn't see it ending like this, his future drifting in the wind. The least he deserves, he figures, is a straight answer from the Blazers, not these reports from "unnamed sources."
"I get it. Brandon gets it," said Greg Lawrence, Roy's agent. "It's not complicated. They are going to make a decision that is best for them. If they want him to be there, he will show up and work hard like he always has and do whatever it takes to help the team win. If they don't want Brandon to be there, he will move on. He just wants to know."
...
Roy will probably be a victim of the amnesty clause. The Blazers are likely to waive him.
Tom Ziller of SBNation.com has a lengthy take on Roy.
That's why this situation is such a mess for the Blazers: fans have lost faith in the franchise's leadership to do the right thing by fans, and the franchise's leadership is about to make a necessary, painful decision that would anger any fan base. So Portland will have the pleasure of dealing with fans who would be angry with the Roy decision even if someone as saintly as Nicolas Batum ran the team, in addition to dealing with reasonable fans who understand the rationale for waiving Roy but so completely mistrust Allen that they are angered by the circumstances that result in waiving Roy.
Basically, Paul Allen's ability to be wholly unlikable has sunk the Blazers' chances of coming out of this disaster relatively unscathed. All that can save the team's popularity now is the team's popularity, which is to say this regrettable episode can only be subsumed in the future thanks to the immense loyalty of the city and its residents, the charm of LaMarcus Aldridge, Wes Matthews and Batum, and the allure of beating those f--king Lakers in the playoffs.
Note: I added one final bullet point to the list of financial benefits of waiving Roy. Kevin Pelton helpfully reminded me that the Blazers will receive millions of additional dollars from luxury tax-payers by virtue of being a non-taxpayer at the end of the year. That amount of money is not certain but is reliably substantial thanks to major salary teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks.
Click through for a couple more pictures.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter
An unused box of jerseys that presumably could have been used for pick-up games.
Lockout beard nightmare fuel.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter