In Portland, Fans Are Blazing Mad: Players Find Trouble, Team Finds Discontent
Somewhere within the landscape of the NBA, there is a place where talent and character meet at a perfect crossroads. In this place, players are skilled enough to go deep into the playoffs and energetic enough to win over fans, but not so naturally gifted they reek of entitlement. General managers have an instinctual sense of those on their rosters in this place, and owners and fans live together in perfect harmony.
This place is out there. Somewhere. It just isn't in Portland.
Indeed...and now the rest of the NBA is discovering what a cesspool this once-proud franchise has become.
I've loved the Trailblazers for as long as I can remember, and they're on the verge of losing me. When I moved to Portland in 1983, there was a buzz in the city every time the Blazers played. "BEAT L.A.!!" was more than just a mantra, it was a way of life. Portland lived and died with it's team, particularly in 1990 and 1992, when they made it to the NBA Finals.
Now the team's roster is populated with talented, immature crybabies with fine-china-fragile egos, and their act is growing tiresome. The damage may not be reversible- even if they start winning again.
"There is absolutely nothing [including a title] that the Blazers could do to get me back as a fan," Portland resident Jim Mackey wrote in a recent open letter to a local newspaper. Ron Tonkin, a high-profile local auto dealer, added his own letter, saying, "We have nearly 800 employees and now have to spend time to find enough people who want to see the game to fill our corporate box."
Another fan has posted a billboard downtown that reads "Boycott Blazers -- we need a team that can beat L.A., not women and the justice system"; yet another has started a Web site asking for money to buy the Blazers from billionaire owner Paul Allen. (More than $355,000 has been pledged.) Much of this ire has been directed specifically at Portland President and General Manager Bob Whitsitt, who has guided the Blazers to the playoffs every year since taking over in 1994 but who has also seen 18 players get in trouble with the law, team management or league officials on his watch.
"I've had better weeks, I'll tell you that," Whitsitt said a few days ago, obviously tired from churning out some of the meatiest damage control of his career. In just the last two weeks, he has apologized to fans, saying, "This is embarrassing, it's disappointing, it's frustrating." He fined Patterson $100,000 for the domestic incident.
And yet Whitsitt keeps hiring on talented players of highly questionable character. Is it any wonder the fans are exiting en masse? Portland is a small town, and bad news travels quickly. It also lingers. The Traiblazers used to be the class of the NBA. They did things right, and the players carried themselves with dignity and respect. Now they are a first class embarrassment- to the NBA, to the city they represent, and to themselves.
I'm not so sure that Paul Allen is the problem, but he certainly is guilty of condoning the decline of a once-proud franchise. The only way that Allen is going to be able to win back Portland is to cut Bob Whitsitt loose and to give the new GM the freedom to clean house and start rebuilding from the bottom up. Frankly, I don't care if their roster consists of the Tualitin Valley Junior High School All-Star team. Just give us 12 players that will play hard and represent the community well. Is that too much to ask for?
If this continues much longer, I'm going to have no choice but to become a Rockets fan. Yukkkk....
