That last page was fucking sad. I could tell he's super sad. Tough read. Can't understand the vitriol aimed at him. Don't trust no corporation.
Got me right in the feels bro. And i have zero doubt he was speaking from the Heart. Time will change that as he sets in with Milwaukee but i believe he will live in PTown for life and retire a Blazer. It's got to happen.
I guess I just don’t agree. I don’t love my job like I love the Blazers. The team has given me some amazing joy throughout my life. Easily some of the most amazing moments. Dame is putting us in a tough spot where we have to pick between our love for the team that we grew up with and our love for Dame. How is that not like a marriage? This isn’t transactional for us. Blazer fandom is part of who we are. People wear blazers clothes and have blazers license plates and spend hours on a lame ass forum with other psychos. Dame is preying on that.
It's certainly possible that Dame sincerely wanted to reconcile with the team. And it's possible that Joe/Bert were not open to it as they simply decided to move on and bad blood prevailed.
he wants to come back? It’s his home? He didn’t truly want to leave. He became a man in Portland. Grew roots. Prob wants to be loved by the folks in his hometown and setting the stage for a return and retirement don’t know but I believe him and his love for Portland
That's fair enough but it's still hyperbolic. I guess it's like if your favorite athlete has some shit go down with your favorite team and on his way out, after a trade to a place he's OK with but wasn't where he wanted to go, tries to throw the team under the bus both to come off as the good guy to the general public and the fans who are now both fans of that athlete and still the team which causes some internal strife because fans can be really into their hobby which is in fact some people's job that they pour their whole life into. I think it's important to note (in this analogy) that he watched almost every teammate he'd had from the previous three seasons get traded exactly where they asked to get traded to. The point is there is nothing like sports. They mean so much to us and are also by definition very trivial unless they are the way you make your living. I know covering this team was once the way you made your living so I think maybe you might have more invested or maybe the opposite and working around it gave you a perspective of its triviality.
He always 100% conducted himself that way as well. If he and his wife split I understand how it could have effected him. And Dame has never taken the victim approach with life.
That’s not entirely true. Every report was that Joe told CJ and Hart that he would work with them but they gave him a list and he worked to get them to where they wanted but he’d pick the best deal out of the teams they requested. From what I heard, New Orleans wasn’t CJs first choice. Obviously New York is where Hart wanted to go, but they also gave the best offer.
I don't believe it's either/or. People don't always make good decisions or execute their decisions well. And people are often not prepared for all the ramifications and consequences arising from their actions. Dame stepped into a situation that he wasn't fully prepared for. He miscalculated, I think, and he had some bad advice The Blazers sure aren't perfect either. We've talked about all their imperfections for 15 years here it sure seems that some people here want to assert bad faith to one side or the other. To try and assign blame to one side or the other And while there is plenty of blame to go around, I'm not sure either side has a high ground when it comes to any bad faith, if it's there
So it really wasn't that Dame 'had a change of heart' and was willing to stay in Portland... Just that Dame was willing to wait it out until the trade deadline
But that’s not my point. I think both sides are at fault here because they should have realized two damn years ago that it was in everyone’s best interest to part amicably. But rather than just take the win and go play with Giannis and hopefully win a ring, he felt the need to get the last word on the way out. He had to trash Joe and the Blazers and that, to me, was uncalled for. Most people had moved on past the trade demand and the Miami bullshit and were happy for him. Now he decides to do this and decided to let off a stink bomb on his way out.
Speak for yourself. I side with the team because my interest in the team pre-dates before any of them were even born and will still be there years after they've left. It's not a hard decision for me. I'm a fan of the name on the front far more than the name on the back.
