Good post. I often wonder why I follow and root for the Blazers so hard. The losses and disappointment bring me down more than the wins bring me up. I became a fan when the Drexler teams went to the finals as a kid then loved the trader Bob era in high school. Maybe it's like what I imagine a heroine addiction is like where I'm chasing that first high the rest of my life.
That's a really cynical way of looking at loyalty but I get it. I was explaining to someone that my happiest moment as a sports fan was when we won the draft lotto but it pretty quickly turned into the shit show that was Greg Oden's injuries strung together for what some would call a professional basketball career. It made me cringe to see the "One Shining Moment" ads this year with GO in them. I swear that if we land the number one spot in this draft that it will be the best I've felt as a sports fan since that soon to be disaster. At least this year there won't be a honk once or twice... it's the Wemby show unless his physical shows some kind of sure fire injury problem that's more obvious than the fact that when you look at him standing still it seems like a strong enough wind would snap the kid in two. The funny thing is unlike most of the skinny seven footers, when Wemby is moving that's when he looks like he isn't very breakable at all. Dude moves better than most guys a foot shorter. Who am I kidding, we're not getting Wemby... I mean we will probably have no less than half the chance that the three teams with the worst records will but even they only have a 14% chance. Second spectrum would not advise taking that shot.
Always a chance. The Blazers, at least, tried to win this year. But injuries reared their ugly head again. The Tank started late. Not like San Antonio & Houston. Detroit had the injury to Cade Cunningham that upended them. So this year i feel like the chances for Wemby are pretty good. It's a vibe thing. Plus, on the medical front, these teams have better medical staffs now. The scrutiny is higher than ever. I don't think Oden having a leg longer (Not that one HaHa) than the other gets by now. Or Bowie fibbing that his leg was fine.
a few years ago there was a substantial study by several business schools and psychology schools like NYU and Harvard on the emotional parts of the stock market and investing they put in gauges and controls so they could try to measure the intensity of emotions related to gains and losses. IIRC their conclusions were that investors' emotional reactions to actual financial losses were about 2 times more intense than to financial gains. They also concluded that the misery from those losses lasted much longer than the euphoria from the gains I believe this is probably true for sports too. Unless maybe your teams wins it all. I watched the Blazers win the Championship in 1977 (on TV), and that's still the highlight of my Blazer fandom. But I sure do remember those huge losses too. The 4th Q collapse against the Lakers in 2000 still stings....a lot
