I have tried to search for the video but don't seem to know how to look, tried Youtube and Bing with no success. Anyways, Rip City Mornings was talking about it and how much the Blazers are disrespected in it. If anyone knows how to find the commercial, please post it.
I was thisclose to recording it on my phone and posting it on here this morning. Quite simply, it was offensive how dismissively it treats the Blazers, like sacrificial lambs offered up for slaughter upon the altar of Oakland.
We might not like it but there has been very little this season to suggest that won't be the case. In the last week+, we have played the Spurs twice w/o Kawhi Leonard once and without Gasol, Parker and Ginobili the other time. We got routed both times. We had what, 3-4 wins over teams with winning records all season? It sucks but right now we are cannon fodder for the better teams. What makes it worse is we have a higher payroll than all but one of those teams.
Let's hope our guys use it as motivation. God knows we need it. I consider it a victory if Steph plays in the fourth quarter. Tired of seeing him destroy us thru 3 quarters and rest. That one game when he had his towel on his head in Moda while Dame was in his FU mode was glorious.
This is really not an issue. It was pure coincidence that we had so many RFAs in the same year. This will normalize and our payroll will come back to around 10th or so come July 1, 2017.
It's more HOW we spent the money. Not sure that there were a lot of other teams lining up for Leonard and Harkeless' services. Matching the Crabbe offer put them in a tough place but didn't see where Turner had any other offer like what he got here either. In fact, reports are he was shocked. So three of the four Olshey bid on in what was as far as we know, an uncontested manner. That is $37+ million in salaries right there for not a lot of return.
It brings to mind favoritism. We all know that there is, but the league is not supposed to admit it. This is blatant. I shudder to think what the refs are going to be like.
It's just Warrior highlights from a Blazer/Warrior game with Jake O'Donnell superimposed as the official running around giving a Tech to every Blazer in a uniform. Green font?
Well, it's not the league, it's ESPN. They're advertising their programming and, outside of Oregon, the Warriors are the biggest draw in this game. Of course they're going to hype the team more people want to see.
They Blazers haven't earned shit this season. Not getting blown out by 20+ would probably be a "win" for this group right now. If they (you?) want to be respected by national media, then it has to be based on something in their performance.
I love that they diss us in a commercial.....it's the closest thing to an allstar snub to fuel the inner beast...wake up call! If we're not the sacrificial goat in this game we need to be the monster in the closet and give them nightmares! ........I'll give timeout pep talks and throw a chair or two across the court if it helps....hell I'll even buy Dame a pair of Converse All Star high tops!
And if the league had a problem with what ESPN aired the they would demanded it be changed. They didn't so it brings up the questions of favoritism and an uncompetitive balance before the ball is even tipped off. Its already giving the referees a built in excuse to screw us because according to the commercial there is no way in hell we should be on the same basketball court with the Warriors, let alone beat them and if the Warriors just so happen to get the majority of the calls go there way, well that's how it's supposed to be.
What do we have to respect? We are a team at 15-21 without an all-star (Yeah I said it. Dame aint making it even with the change in voting) with one of the highest payrolls in the league. Not much to admire.
I think it is safe to say that the Turner signing was a mistake, as was the Leonard signing. Unnecessary and duplicative. Mo and Crabbe make sense, at least to me. Question: If we didn't use all that money on Turner, could we have saved it for this off-season? If so, are there any free agents that would have made more sense?
It's a long stretch from "ESPN hypes the team that gets better ratings" to "the NBA tells its officials to help the team that gets better ratings." And of course there's competitive imbalance. There always will be, in sports. Some markets are just more attractive than others. Even with salary caps and unbiased officiating, there will be competitive imbalance. Portland will never compete with LA in terms of luring free agents.
