This is fire season. In a time where firefighters repeatedly brave the elements in an effort to contain nature’s fury, I’ve started a controlled burn regarding narratives tied to our local sports. Week after week, day after day, and seemingly hour after hour, nonsense pertaining to our Portland Trail Blazers, our universities, and our franchises to the north, hit me from every conceivable angle … and not in a good way. So in an effort to turn the tide, I’ve turned my attention to a handful of topics, and unfortunately the slants which some have taken concerning the aforementioned points of interest.
LaMarcus Aldridge: Is he staying or is he going? He’s going. It may not be this summer, it may not be this upcoming season, but at his age he’s more valuable not for what he can do on the court, but for what he can help us do on the court in years’ to come. Sure, he’s a good player and he’s been a loyal Blazer for the better part of 7 seasons, but logic says by the time this team’s ready to win, “L.A.” will be a declining asset making all-star money; money better spent on a player in or near-to his prime. Send him somewhere he can make a run at a title (Something he’s earned the right to do), and in the process build a foundation of a legitimate contender down the road. The Blazers aren’t getting better or worse with him around, and if you’re not doing one or the other, you’re irrelevant in a game that values championships.
C.J. McCollum is the next Damian Lillard. No he isn’t. I’m just playing the percentages people. Rarely does a player of Damian Lillard’s ilk impact the league to the extent he did last season. So to suggest based strictly on physical stature, similar backgrounds, and an intense desire for it to be, that Portland now has 2 combo guards worthy of All-Star consideration is foolishness worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit. I understand the urge to anoint based on a fan’s wants and needs, but to presume a level of luck it’d take for the aforementioned to be true, would be to ignore the level of bad luck this franchise has made famous for the better part of 3 decades. Until Paul Allen decides to cut ties with the Tiki Doll he picked from the surf following a taping of a 1970’s Brady Bunch episode, I’ll err on the side of Sam Bowie, Greg Oden, and Brandon Roy’s knees, opposed to the infantile stage of a first-year-player who seems too good to be true. Pardon my “South,” but we ain’t lucky, and until I witness enough good fortune to legitimately turn the tide of a franchise on the wrong side of the path of a black cat, I’ll continue to not hold my breath.
Anyone cares about the Mariners. I want them to do well, but they haven’t in moons, aren’t currently, and won’t be any good until that disinterested Nintendo clown cuts bait with the team he’s never seen play in person. A successful franchise starts from the top and trickles to the front office, down through the players at the Major League level, and onto the farm system largely responsible for every winning organization not named Yankees or Red Sox. Seattle is weak at the top, and due to such lacks the attitude necessary for success.
Mark Helfrich is no Chip Kelly. Duh, from a physical standpoint, semi-duh from a philosophical standpoint, and “says who” from a rational standpoint. No one really knows how Mark Helfrich will fair as the head coach at the University of Oregon, and anyone who speaks such nonsense should immediately check their sanity card at the door. Chip Kelly was an exceptionally successful coach in Eugene, and it will and would be difficult for anyone to meet or exceed his level of excellence. But Mark Helfrich is an unknown to most, and how he plans to tweak a system that he’s already endorsed as “fit for use,” is a mystery fit for Magnum P.I., Simon & Simon, or any other late-80’s detective duo. Will he throw it more often? How will he use dynamic players such as DeAnthony Thomas, Marcus Mariota, and even Thomas Tyner? And most importantly: how will players confident in Chip Kelly react to scenarios worthy of second-guessing? If this team loses early, struggles mightily, or appears to be “less” by those in and around the program, the very players Helfrich is dependent upon for success might undermine such via complacency found frequently amongst the insecure.
The Seahawks will win the Super Bowl. They’re coming off of a great year, have a young exciting quarterback, and they’ve built a roster worthy of preseason hype. But they won’t win the Super Bowl, and they won’t do such due to one thing … their the Seahawks. Yes, I know they’ve been there as recently as 2006, but they also never were prior to that year. It’s just not in the cards for the Hawks, just like it wasn’t for the Mariners in 2001, Sonics in 1996, and Sounders last year.
Portland will have an NHL team. I’d love for that to happen, but until I see one smart move by the NHL and Gary Bettman, I’ll continue to presume they’ll make none. Having a team in Seattle and Portland, coupled with the Canucks in Vancouver would be a home run in a game that could always use one. Enough with the Phoenix Coyotes, two teams in Florida, and the Columbus Blue Jackets for goodness sakes! Portland loves its hockey, and one needn’t look any further than the Timbers for evidence that exceptional support for years’ worth of a minor-league team will translate to major league success.
There you are, a handful of topics running wild in and around our community, tackled by yours truly in an effort to educate the “dreamers” in a world I approach realistically. If you want the good news, you’re talking to the wrong guy, but if you want the hard truth, I’m happy to give you mine … like it or not.
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