The Jailblazers in Retrospect: It was never about character, it was about losing.

You are overlapping periods.

Those fans didn't immediately come back when Roy and Aldridge were drafted because A) they were not hearalded, can't-miss prospects, and Zach and Darius were still on the team. Zach was getting arrested and the team was still very much the "JailBlazers".

Those fans started coming back after Zach was traded and Roy and Aldridge had shown they could play and the future was bright.

 

Zach was traded the same day that Oden was drafted,and when he was added there was a huge spike in interest. But when Oden went down with his first microfracture surgery I can tell you from first hand experience that people weren't exactly flocking to the Rose Garden the first couple months of the season.

I know this because I went to watch a game against Milwaukee that year and got 100 level tickets 13 rows behind the Blazers' bench from a scalper for 30 bucks ... coincidentally that overtime win came in at number 3 in what would eventually become their 13 game winning streak that year. To me that was when people finally started to pay attention to the team again. Ultimately it's still all about winning or losing in this city.

 

I don't see how not wanting to pay to was a 30-win team that got then lost their savior before the season even started makes everyone a fair weather fan. Just because I didn't start buying tickets in earnest until last year doesn't mean I am a fucking fair weather fan only interested in winning. There's some bad logic in using a sellout streak or attendance in measuring fandom. All that measures is how the cost of attending balances with the enjoyment of going to a game. You can be a fan of a bad team and still think it's not worth $30 to see a loss.

Winning brings people out of their homes and into the sunlight, but it doesn't mean they aren't at home watching the team or listening on the radio when the team is struggling. People have no reason to proudly spend a bunch of money to watch a team lose. That we improved so much that season is great, but it was unexpected, and we'd lost something like 7 in a row before that win streak started. There's no reason to pay cash to watch a loss when you can get the same loss for free.

 

I wasn't pointing to anybody in particular for being a fair weather fan, I'm simply stating that in the aggregate, the city didn't come back to the team until that win streak -- don't take what I said so personally.

 

I used myself as an example; winning raises one side of the cost/enjoyment equation (the "enjoyment" part) such that more people will attend because they see the event as worth their while. Before that winning streak, we were a 31 win team on pace for another 31 win season. Why pay good money when you could see them lose for free?

Once the winning started, even though they were still not a 50 win team, the people started showing up, because the possibility of seeing a win and really enjoying themselves was more and more likely, making the cost of a ticket (3x that of a movie ticket, and a lot more than cable or listening on the radio) worth it.

Just because people didn't start attending until after that streak doesn't mean those same people weren't fans before. They just had cost/enjoyment ratios in their head that needed to be met before it was worth their money to attend.

 

Look I only took issue with your assertion here:

Nothing more, nothing less. trading Zach isn't what brought people back and it wasn't simply because Roy and Aldridge showed they could play during their rookie seasons. It took an honest to god winning streak to get people back in the seats.

So from that respect I think this city has kind of a front-runner's mentality. On the other hand I look at team like the Golden State Warriors who have been historically awful, but yet still rank at the top of the league in attendance year after year. Just because you personally aren't a fair weather fan, doesn't mean that Portland isn't full of them.

 

Masbee said that, not me.

How can I take your argument seriously if you can't even be bothered to distinguish between two posters?

 

You're right ... I guess you were taking issue with me taking issue with Masbee's statement.

 

And, among the hardcore fans, even fans of "great teams" are only happy at the end of the season and only if their team won it all. I can see that in the aggregate (large Lakers and Yankees forums are usually just as roiling with frustration and anger as this forum, New York sports talk radio explodes in anger any time the Yankees don't seem to be dominating, even if they are title favourites) and I've seen it on the individual level (I'm a 49ers fan, and the 49ers were great when I was a kid and I was generally more unhappy then after any loss than I am these days after all the many losses; a friend of mine from SoCal is a huge Lakers fan and he's usually grumbling about the team).

Fact of the matter is that sports, far from being an escape and release, often seems to be a major source of frustration to many. There are theories as to why that one can speculate on but it's a shame that what should be a fun diversion for people generally isn't...unless you are a very casual fan. Perhaps casual fans are actually the best-adjusted sports fans, with the best sense of perspective about sports.

 

I mostly take issue with characterizing Portland as a frontrunner town... I react so strongly because it puts us in the same camp as Lakers fans and Huevonkiller.

 

I wouldn't be so quick to cast contempt huevonkiller's way. He seems to enjoy (key word "enjoy," as in "take happiness from") sports more than you. Considering spectator sports was always conceived as something to enjoy, that seems like he has a superior approach.

If you envision sports as a very serious thing, akin to marriage, then I suppose you'd be contemptful.

 

Thanks for that.

 

You recently authored a post calling people "fools" for thinking more of Bayless than you do. I thought it was fairly obvious that you get angry over sports. I didn't mean it as an insult...99% of fahs get frustrated and angry over sports. I don't think being contemptuous of people who don't engage in (as you put it) "tribalism" and accordingly enjoy sports more is terribly reasonable.

 

Aww..... Thanks.

 

I could not bring myself to watch the Jailblazers. I have no problems watching this team, even when they struggle.

I have gone to one game this year (the loss to Utah) and had a ball. I am looking forward to my next game of the year, next week.

To each his own, I guess.

 

This has been a bad week, and I'm a little ashamed that it's gotten the better of me. I'm a little surprised that you remember that post; I pretty much figured I could say anything I wanted without any real consequence since it was the internet and I'm not respected here.

 

Exactly what I was going to say. Embarrassed, ashamed etc

 

Interesting that yet another poster that doesn't live in Portland is beating the character doesn't matter drum. The thugs won't live in their community, so why should they care about character? The fact is character DOES matter, just to different levels for different fans.

There is no way in hell anyone can convince me that a team made up of murderers, rapists and meth cooks would draw sellout crowds to watch them play, regardless of how many games they won. To say they would is just dumb.

I get that there will never be such a team in the league. But there is a point (a different point of everyone), somewhere between a team of choir boys and the team I describe above, where the vast majority of fans would call it quits.

If it doesn't matter to the fans, why did the Blazers make it a point to bring in 'character' guys?

Go Blazers