Blaze Nation: Tomorrow
March 9, 2008
It isn’t often that a team that is 6.5 games out of the final playoff spot gets talked about as often as the current installment of Port Town’s Blazers do. I get the distinct feeling in my interactions with other Blaze Nationals, that they just assume Portland should be talked about on ESPN as glowingly as they are, or on TNT telecasts that don’t even feature the Blazers, just because we think that highly about our hometown boys. We should take the time to understand how out of the ordinary this actually is. Keep in mind that the #9 Nuggets and the #8 Warriors don’t get as much run as the #10 Blazers. That’s right, 2 teams vying against one another for the final playoff spot in the uber competitive Left Conference are apparently so much less compelling that they lose airtime to a team they are a combined 11 games better than.
I know Blazer fans, we deserve it because despite being youngest squad we are still 3 games over even, sporting the reigning ROY, new Silent Assassin LaMarcus Aldridge, the current #1 draft pick that will be a rookie still next year, and we still have a long shot at the playoffs. This is true, and our bright prospects for the future are obviously why we get so much TV lovin’. But when tomorrow comes, let’s appreciate where we were just 3 years ago: cheering (jeering?) on the Jailblazers, we had seen the end of the Association’s longest playoff appearance streak, and our team was firmly entrenched in the cellar. Owner Paul didn’t own our house, and we were a franchise losing money, on the cusp of being sold to a team of investors that incidentally included our old boy Terry Porter. Fortunes can change abruptly, and though we seem poised to ascend back to relevance, PLEASE don’t forget how it felt to be irrelevant.
I don’t bring this up to deflate that swell in our collective chest, but instead to be sure that we’re all taking the time to smell this proverbial rose. Don’t become every other fan nation out there, who, upon national prominence, acted as though their stink always smelled of potpourri. Let Blaze Nation be like the boys we support: humble, appreciative, and uncommonly mature despite our lack of experience as headliners.
