Since I'm never going back to BBF, I thought I'd save for posterity some of my best posts from there. How egotistical is that, right? Here's a Division Realignment I proposed on 7/21/2008, after the Seattle-OKC move was official. Eastern Conference Northeast Division Boston Celtics New York Knicks New Jersey Nets Philadelphia 76ers Washington Wizards Southeast Division Orlando Magic Atlanta Hawks Miami Heat Charlotte Bobcats Memphis Grizzlies Central Division Detroit Pistons Cleveland Cavs Chicago Bulls Indiana Pacers Toronto Raptors Western Conference Midwest Division Utah Jazz Denver Nuggets Minnesota Timberwolves Milwaukee Bucks Oklahoma City Thunder Southwest Division Phoenix Suns San Antonio Spurs Dallas Mavericks Houston Rockets New Orleans Hornets Pacific Division LA Lakers LA Clippers Portland Trail Blazers Sacramento Kings Golden State Warriors
(Archive - My Best BBF Posts) Portland Blazer/Seattle Sonic History Original post date: 7/3/2008 First of all, I think all Blazer fans need to tip their hat to the north today in honor of the Sonic Fans whom we've warred with and argued with over the years. The Portland/Seattle rivalry was just that, a rivalry with bad blood and mutual begrudging respect. There were many chapters in the Blazer/Sonic history book, including: - 1978, Seattle knocking the defending World Champion Blazers out from the quarterfinals when Bill Walton and half the Portland Squad was injured. Seattle would go on to lose in the finals to the Bullets. - 1979, Portland fans having to grit their teeth and watch our fellow NW'ers celebrate their first and only World Title. - 1980, Portland unceremoniously bounced from the first round by a defending champion Sonic team, which witnessed the birth of a potential superstar in Billy Ray Bates. - 1983, Portland upsets favored Seattle in the first round handily to earn a date to be mauled by the Showtime Lakers in the quarterfinals. - 1991, Part 1: The famous "Tacoma Dome" game. Blazer fans immersed in the glory of the team's successes buys tickets by the thousands at the Tacoma arena, angering Sonic fans and inflaming tensions between the two groups for years to come. The game itself was for the ages, with the Blazers coming back from 24 points down to win in the final seconds. I can still hear the competing cheers of Blazers and Sonics fans drowing each other out with each made basket. Truly a lifetime memorable experience. - 1991, Part 2: The Sonics, still embittered and passionate about the above incident, scared the #1 seed Blazers to death by pushing their first round matchup to an unexpected 5th game, sewing the seeds of doubt that eventually doomed the Blazers that year. - 1993, in response (and some say revenge) for the Tacoma Dome game of 1991, a similarly scheduled game in Tacoma during the '93 season caused controversy and further bad feelings when the Sonics refused to sell tickets to anyone outside of the Seattle area other than high level, poor view seats. Blazer fans were relegated to small disjointed areas. Portland, however, won the game. The rivalry has cooled somewhat in recent years with the paths of the teams not crossing during the playoffs, and the ups and downs of each team not coinciding with the other. However, a game vs. the Sonics was always one to mark down on the calander as one that would be a knock-down, drag-out affair that regardless of the records, could go either way. The Blazers did their share of damage to the Sonics during their title runs in the mid-90s, and the Sonics surely took their shots at the Blazers in the late-90s, early-00s. There are many names of Sonic greats who will be fondly and not-so-fondly remembered to Blazer fans: Gus Williams, Downtown Freddy Brown, Jack Sikma, Tom Chambers, Xavier Mcdaniel, Dale Ellis, Nate McMillan (naturally), Gary Payton, Ricky Pierce, Vin Baker, Ray Allen. And lets not forget players who donned both jerseys at points in their career: Lenny Wilkins, Herm Gilliam, Wally Walker, Danny Young, Maurice Lucas, Shawn Kemp, Antonio Harvey, Jerome Kersey, John Crotty, Detlef Schrempf, Ruben Patterson, Richie Frahm, and Eddie Gill. And of course, there's Mr. Sonic Nate McMillan himself, who is a vital part of the current Blazer leadership. Two franchises with a long, storied history between them that is ended and ripped apart by the cold realities of today's corporate climate. To the displaced Seattle NBA fan, I say to them, welcome aboard, it's good to have you.
(Archive - My Best BBF Posts)(Game Report) Blazers vs. Sonics, Gm 2 1980 First Round Original post date: 4/19/2008 I TiVo'ed this game last night on NBATV's "Hardwood Classics". I'm going to try to get it vid-capped and YouTube some of the good sequences, but observations: - Man, the Three-Point line was mostly IGNORED back in the day. Players are shooting the ball consistantly from 2-3 feet inside the arc, when a small step back would be a three. - The isolation one-on-one play was unheard of. Transition basketball was the name of the game back then, and Seattle did it better than just about anyone. Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson were f'ing incredible. The number of out-of-bounds outlet passes for a fast break was insane. - The ref calls were from another planet. Offensive fouls in transition, traveling calls, double-dribbles, they didn't let ANYTHING slide. And for the people who complain about the ticky-tack hand checking fouls today, watch some games from that era. The refs were calling small hand-slaps and reach-ins that would be completely ignored today. - Calvin Natt was a BEAST. He had LaMarcus Aldridge arms, a better mid-range jump shot, and ball handling skills, and he was a ROOKIE in this game. A player like that today would be an All-Star for sure, why didn't he become a star? - If you think the crowds at the Rose Garden are loud and excited, man you don't know anything. The old Memorial Coliseum crowds of this era were DEAFENING and SMART. They screamed over every contested ball, every foul, and damn near blew the roof off for every made basket. Musberger and Bill Russell, the CBS commentators, could barely be heard in some sequences. And this was before the manufactured, orchestrated crowd enthusiasm of today. There was no big screen telling the fans to get loud, there was no "rah rah" music being played, it was the game on the court that the people were screaming over. One other thing that I noticed and had forgotten was the arena lighting during the game. The crowd lights were dimmed and the lights shining on the court were intensified, further focusing the attention on the court. That doesn't happen today. - And the main reason that this game is shown is, of course, Billy Ray Bates. This kid was Jordan before MJ knew he was Jordan. The fearlessness, the offensive skills, the determination and the desire to have the ball in his hands in clutch situations was unbelievable. He made a jumper from the corner with two Sonics in his face with 4 seconds to go to send the game into overtime that's just sick to watch. And he just took over the game in overtime, and had Jack Ramsay shaking his head, because you know he hated that style of play (which was one reason that I don't fault the Blazers for not taking MJ in 1984... Ramsay would have hated his style of play and benched him), but let BRB do his thing because it was working. If the Reagan Adminstration would have used Billy Ray Bates in it's "Don't Do Drugs" ads of the 1980s, it might have had more effect. Man, what a waste. That kid had all the makings of a superstar.
(Archive - My Best BBF Posts) Dear Laker Fans at the Rose Garden Original Post Date: 2/29/2008 I hope you injured yourselves scurrying from the building before the final horn sounded to avoid getting your butt kicked. There should be a new RG admission policy: anyone with a Kobe Jersey is flogged.
(Archive - My Best BBF Posts) [YouTube] A gift for the faithful Original Post Date: 7/29/2008 Some YouTube goodies for the Blazer boys and girls, who've been good all summer... No group of videos would be right without a proper opening!<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E2xX_XM1vQ8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E2xX_XM1vQ8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Playoffs vs. the Lakers<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xt2lHsDZSYs"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Xt2lHsDZSYs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Playoffs vs. Phoenix<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-c744B96L70"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-c744B96L70" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Playoffs vs. Utah<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hXZcdoTO1V8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hXZcdoTO1V8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Finals vs. Chicago Part 1<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LQOcBL7hWIk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LQOcBL7hWIk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Finals vs. Chicago Part 2<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WQR5XD_PVnU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WQR5XD_PVnU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> 1992 Finals vs. Chicago Part 3<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_gdJc5Qi07o"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_gdJc5Qi07o" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> And, since you've all been EXTRA good... here's a bonus... the first 10 minutes of Game 5 of the 1977 NBA Finals!<br> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v5JwZstZVsQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v5JwZstZVsQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
(Archive - My Best BBF Posts) Silly things I enjoy at Blazer Games Original Post Date: 3/21/2007 So last night at the game, I made mental notes of some of the things that I really enjoy about the game, and a few of them were pretty weird: - Well, I can't say I enjoy it, but I enjoy hating Todd Bosma's pre-game rah-rah video on the big screen. - Nothing fills my heart with goodwill towards humanity than watching people in the 100 sections, who have more discretionary cash in their pockets than I have to pay bills this month, crawling all over themselves to catch some two week free membership at 24 Fitness, or last night: two free tickets to a future Blazer Game. Yeah, guys, you with the Season Tickets that cost about as much as my mortgage... that's what you need. Why can't that damn blimp ever go up to the cheap seats where the people actually could use the stuff they give away? - It's really goofy, but I think it's hilarious when they are promoting the Verizon cell phone text trivia question, or whatever, and you've got various Blazers pointing at the phones they have in their hands, and I think it's Ime, with the biggest goofball grin on his face, pointing at his cell like a too-cool Baller. I always laugh at that. - I don't know which "kids hip hop dance acadamy" did the halftime show last night, but those kids were GOOD. Usually the "kiddy dance" groups are pretty lame, but that group last night obviously had some practice. - Why can't I ever get picked for their "ask a Blazer a question" or "get asked a trivia question by a Blazer" spots during timeouts? I always KILL on the answers, and I'd ask the players a goofy question like "Who is your favorite Three Stooge?" or "What do you REALLY think of John Canzano?" - I admit it... I go nuts the George Foreman "LETS GRILL... LETS GRILL... LETS GRILL 'EM!!" spot. I wait for it. I hope for it. I think it's about the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. I know they have a similar Bill Walton spot, but they hardly ever play it. I wish they'd make more like that with B-level celebrities, like Kevin Federline, Charo, Flaver Flav (LOL I made myself laugh at the thought of that spot: "YYYEAAAAAAAHHHH BOOOYYYYEEEEE!!!! YO, BLAZER FANS, LETS SHOW THESE BUSTAS WHAT TYYYMMMMEEEE IT ISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!") - I understand the need behind the "Super Season Ticket Holder" promotion, but, damn, these are some of the most uninteresting people I've ever seen. Why can't you find and interview some rabid, bitter Blazer fan who picks his favorite all-time Blazer as Jim Paxson and gives Blaze a chokehold? I would enjoy that. - SPEAKING OF BLAZE... I know the kids go crazy for him, but DAMN, his act, especially the dunking between the third and fourth quarter, is PLAYED. I mean, my wife can RECITE the "THE LOUDER YOU CHEER, THE HIGHER HE FLIES!!!" routine, and not from liking it. And what's with the electric scooter? Are you that lazy, Blaze? More "Trail Breakers", less BLAZE. - My wife made a funny comment to me last night: "Why are the Blazers promoting poor eating? Look at the food they are giving away... Chalupas, McDonald's Cheeseburgers, Burritos, and Pizza. The whole crowd is going to be 400 pounds by the end of the game! Why can't they make it 'Wendy's Side Salad' night if they score 100 points? Or even 'Subway 6 inch sandwich'?" I think she's got a point. - Once again, the best thing that I enjoy about going to the games is... paying 4 bucks for $49 lower bowl seats! That Flex Pass was the best thing I ever bought.
Good Idea: LA Based Blazer Fans- Take over staples center http://www.basketballforum.com/port...s-take-over-staples-center-opening-night.html The Myth of Cap Relief in 2 years http://www.basketballforum.com/portland-trail-blazers/368139-myth-cap-relief-2-years.html Fire Pritchard http://www.basketballforum.com/search.php?searchid=1098518&pp=25&page=3 Draft the STache http://www.basketballforum.com/port...azer-fans-shouldda-drafted-stache-thread.html
