It was an eventful sports week here in Puddletown, but we could only begin the weekly rundown with the news that the Trailblazers finally have a General Manager. I was as surprised as anyone when Larry Miller introduced….
Neil Olshey as the team’s new scapegoat-in-waiting GM. Just a few short days after the local basketball cognoscenti determined that Olshey had agreed to stay with the L.A. Clippers (which he evidently had), he was unveiled as the new GM of Team Dysfunction. Notable for having put together this year’s playoff-caliber Clippers team in record time after the end of the lockout, Olshey seems a solid choice for the job.
There’s little doubt that he’s competent when it comes to personnel matters, it remains to be seen how Olshey will survive on the bridge of the Death Star. Will palace intrigue sink him as it did Kevin Pritchard and Rich Cho before him? Or will he successfully navigate the political waters and bring some stability to a franchise sorely in need of it? Time will tell, but what I’ve seen from Olshey in his first few days on the job inspires confidence. His explicit endorsement of Caleb Kanales could mean that the Blazers have a GM who’s willing to think outside of the box and take risks. Given the current state of disarray the franchise finds itself in, risk-taking might be exactly what’s needed to right the ship.
I hope fans will allow Olshey time to rebuild the Blazers…because restoring the franchise’s credibility and competitiveness won’t happen overnight. Even more than that, I hope ownership and management will allow Olshey the freedom and creativity he’ll need to reconstruct the team. If the dysfunctional management style and infighting at One Center Court prevails, Olshey might wonder what possessed him to leave Lotusland.
Oddly enough, Olshey’s predicament is not unlike that of the brain trust of the…
Portland Timbers. Having just lost to a fifth-tier amateur team, the Timbers are a team desperately in search of an offense. It’s too early to call Portland a place where goal-scorers go to die, but Kenny Cooper is leading MLS in goals (11 in 14 games after scoring all of eight last season) after being traded to New York. Timbers fans can draw their own conclusions.
Jorge Perlaza arrived to great fanfare prior to last season. He was hailed as an exciting player who would bring flair and scoring panache to the Timbers’ front line. Like Cooper, Perlaza struggled to score in Portland. His lack of size and physicality proved to be a handicap in a league known for physical play. No longer able to look past the painfully obvious, the Timbers traded Perlaza to Philadelphia for…
Danny Mwanga, a former Jefferson H.S. and Oregon State star and a former #1 draft pick. The Union drafted Mwanga believing he would solidify the Union’s front line and provide scoring punch in the team’s inaugural season. Unfortunately, Mwanga never developed into the scoring threat Coach Peter Nowak had expected him to be. As his playing time diminished, the Union became disenchanted with a player making $365,000 and collecting splinters on their bench.
Perlaza for Mwanga makes sense from the standpoint that a change of scenery will probably benefit both players and their respective teams. Mwanga will be playing in front of friends and family while the Timbers believe he’ll bolster their front line and provide service to Kris Boyd. Perlaza has a new lease on life in a new system. It’s sad to see him go, but MLS is a production-oriented business, and he wasn’t doing what he was signed to do.
The good news for Mwanga and the Timbers is that they have several days to train together before heading to L.A. to face the defending champion Galaxy on June 17th. The good news for Timbers fans is that the trade acknowledges that the status quo is not acceptable. Management has demonstrated they recognize the need to improve the product on the field. As poorly as the Timbers have performed thus far, they still can make the playoffs. It’s only June, so there’s still time to turn things around. If Danny Mwanga proves himself worthy of his new #10 jersey, the playoffs might be a realistic goal.
In other Northwest sports news, the…
Seattle SuperSonics defeated the San Antonio spurs in the Western Conference Finals. They’re headed to the NBA Finals, where they’ll face a Miami Heat team pushed to the limit in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Boston Celtics.
Wait…what?? Oh, sorry; my bad. I keep forgetting that the Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City when Seattle wouldn’t pony up for a new arena. Kevin Durant and the Sonics…er, Thunder (and what’s up with naming a team after an unpleasant weather event?) are a legitimate threat to win an NBA title. They’re young, they’re talented, and they’re more than just Kevin Durant and his “supporting cast.” Most every night finds another Thunder playing stepping up and doing what needs to be done for a W.
(Hmm…do you think Neil Olshey might be taking notes?)
I love watching the Thunder, but I have a pretty good idea what NBA fans in the Seattle area are going through these days. In 1993, the Minnesota North Stars, the NHL team I worshipped as a child, packed up and headed south to Dallas. If you’re thinking that Dallas isn’t exactly a hockey town, you’re correct. The Dallas Morning News printed a lengthy article in their Sports section explaining hockey rules and strategy prior to the start of the season. It was pitiful, and it was wrong, but my team was gone…and with them went a huge chunk of my childhood. After all these years, I can still say with feeling that….
NORM GREEN STILL SUCKS!!
In 1999, the Dallas Stars finally won the Stanley Cup, the NHL title that by all rights belonged to the people of Minnesota. As I watched the deciding game against Buffalo, I tried to recreate some of my childhood passion for the North Stars. I really did. I tried to think about how I would have felt if the North Stars had been skating the Stanley Cup around the rink in Buffalo…but I just couldn’t do it. In the end, it was like watching your ex- (whom you still love) walk down the aisle with someone you know isn’t half the man you are.
If the Thunder win the NBA title, fans in Seattle will justifiably feel robbed of the opportunity to celebrate a title that should be theirs. The Emerald City was held hostage for a new arena, and when owner Clay Bennett realized that Seattle wasn’t going to cave, he took the Sonics to Oklahoma City. That must have felt like an upgrade, eh? Have you ever been to Oklahoma? What person in their right mind would see Oklahoma City as an improvement over Seattle? Oklahoma is to ugly, narrow-minded, and intolerant what Seattle is to beauty, acceptance, and coffee.
Hmm…Pike Place, Puget Sound, and the Space Needle vs. oil derricks, dust, and oppressive heat? Yeah, I don’t get it either, but Bennett calls Oklahoma home, and the move has proven successful for both him and his team.
When your state’s claim to fame is smelling like petroleum and being home to the world’s largest McDonald’s (it spans both sides of I-44 near Veneta)…. Let’s just say that while Oklahoma isn’t the face of the Earth, it’s not far removed from the other end.
I suspect the NBA and ABC/ESPN is aghast at the prospect of the Finals beginning in Oklahoma City. Predictably, David Stern and ESPN’s talking heads will put on brave faces and proclaim that it’s all good. It’s not exactly Lakers-Celtics, but you dance with who brung you, right?
Meanwhile, Clay Bennett might be feeling a bit under the weather over the next couple weeks. With thousands of Sonics fans sticking pins in Clay Bennett dolls, life may be on the painful side for the Thunder’s owner.
Just imagine what might become of Bennett if the Thunder beat Miami. Sonics fans might unleash a plague of locusts upon the vast wasteland that is Oklahoma…and who would blame them?
While Sonics fans might be crying in their mochaccinos, how about we travel a bit further down the West Coast for proof that life really isn’t fair?
Jim Nantz, he of the perfect hair, dulcet tones, and encyclopedic knowledge of sports, got married yesterday- at Pebble Beach Golf Links. I’ll have to give props to Deadspin’s Sean Newell for this lead-in:
Hello friends and welcome to the 2012 Jim Nantz Wedding At Historic Pebble Beach Golf Links. Phil Simms will be with us in a few moments.
Some guys have all the luck….
While we’re on the subject of luck, I think that University of Oregon baseball Coach…
George Horton would argue that luck favors the prepared. Few teams in college baseball have been better or more thoroughly prepared this season. Ranked as high as #5 during the season, the Ducks, a program that didn’t even exist when Oregon State won NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, could be on their way to Omaha.
The Ducks face Kent State tonight in the third game of the super regional, the winner punching their ticket to the College World Series. Oregon’s impressive season is testimony to the work ethic Horton brought to the task of building Oregon’s baseball program from scratch. No reasonable person could have expected such a remarkable season, but Horton set the bar high from Day One, and now the Ducks could he headed to Omaha.
College baseball is the only sport in which winning a trip to Nebraska is considered a good thing. It would be nice to see the Ducks rewarded for their season, but even if they lose tonight, Horton and his charges have acquitted themselves admirably.
Be sure to tune in next time, when we’ll be discussing the plight of the Los Angeles Kings. They might just be the first team to win the Stanley Cup without anyone in the local media being aware that they actually exist.
Hockey? In June? Dude, that’s just not cool….
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