bowlesk123

I have been a fan since i was 6 years old and my father took me to the games. At first we had season tickets, then year after year the prices of the tickets went up and we started splitting the tickets with friends. Then we started buying only a few games a season. Regardless, we always managed to go see a few games a year. It was not the price of the tickets, so much as the fact that we just did not have the money. Not every year were they a great team. We had a few good years, great years, and bad years. The Blazers are going through some bad years now, all teams go through these years. It's not management or the owner It was just some unlucky picks or player injuries or who knows. Not every team or NBA player is great or they would all be MJ. The point I'm trying to make is that the game of basketball is not always about winning. When your a fan of a team like the Portland Trailblazers you never stop loving them, even if they have a bad year or years. This is Portland's Pro team and the memories they created for me and my father will never die. It wasn't about how great they were, even if that is what we all want. It was about what they have done for the city. I think too many of the fans in Portland are fair weather fans. They have no dignity and no love for the team or the sport. They should hang their heads in shame if they start passing the blame for a few bad years. Granted 10 years down the line then you can start complaining, but this is Pro sports. Bad years occur. Where are the fans I grew up with in Portland? Where are the true Blazer fanatics? Don't let me down Portland fans. Don't sicken me with your back stabbing and complaints over a couple bad years.

ProudBFan

Welcome to the forum, dude.

And yes, we live to keep you in good spirits.

PBF

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ABM

BTW, welcome!

There are plenty of "sold out" Blazer fans on this site. Just a little wound licking going on at the moment.

Foulzilla

Awfully nice of you to make your first 3 posts here all insults towards people in the forum. I'm sure that won't hurt your credibility at all. I particularly like how you just assumed that noone here ever goes to any games.

Can you please explain to me how its somehow ok for you to criticize other fans, but not ok for fans to criticize the team?

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"If push came to shove, I could lose all self-respect & become a reporter."
-Charles Barkley

tradetheo

who do you think makes the unlucky or bad picks? yes, it is managements fault. they traded away players and didn't get value in return. we traded rasheed for what turned out to be theo ratliff. I think that trade goes up there with the jermaine onela trade as the worst in franchise history. and if we sicken you, leave. don;t go to games anymore, you won't be missed at all. Just because you decided to support anything the gm or owner does, doesn't mean we have to do the same. I have been a fan since i was 8, and can not remember a time when we had a gm who made as many dumb moves as nash has made. I don't think you could add up all the trades in our history before nash and it would add up to the bonehead moves he has made in just under 3 years.

It's_GO_Time

I felt your pain bowl and actually felt bad that some of my critcal posts may piss off the true believing fan. But that is a good point.

BTW- I'm going to tone down my disappointment with the team. At this point who cares. The Blazers are basically goiong to have to rely on luck to become competitve again, and Nash and Co have just as good of a cahnce of getting lucky as any otehr GM.

hasoos

As for Nash and his trade deals, I think he has made deals where he had the opportunity, but the flat out fact is every time somebody rants about not liking one of his trades, they don't provide a solution they would have done in his place to make the team better. Some posters on this board will gripe about trading Wallace, Wells, Damon, whoever, and yet they won't say what should have been done to make the situation better, like they could have done a better job. It doesn't help when teams like Toronto and NJ choose to make worse deals for what Portland offered them. What the hell is management supposed to do when Toronto turns down Portlands deal for Vince Carter, instead taking Alonzo Mourning who doesn't play one minute for them. What is Nash supposed to do when NJ turns down a good trade for Shareef because of a supposed failed physical, and then ends up having to let him go because NJ screwed him at the deadline? I don't see the people who are bashing him stepping up with a better solution.

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Hasoos

It's_GO_Time

That's a tough one because how are posters suppose to know what deal are on the table. I see a lot of trade proposal on this board and suggestions on players that would help the team. But whether those are real possibilities or not . . . I certainly don't know.

I can only judge by job performance.

But now I don't even care if they win or lose, I just don't want them to move.

bowlesk123

I did not insult anyone directly here at this message board, except those who lack the heart and will of true fandom. If that's you, then yes i am ashamed of you. I also never said that constructive criticism was uncalled for, in fact, i think it helps. Yet, what i see here is a bunch of name calling, whining and blame game playing. That is the cry of a pathetic fan To blame trades that open up salary and to blame trades that needed to occur to get the jailblazers back to a repsectable team as bad trades or management blunders is ludicrous. The team is starting fresh, that means a few bad years to rebuild, find a path, figure out a team, work players in and out. It takes time and some people here after a mere one bad season and now two are irrate as if something wrong is going on. In fact, nothing wrong is going on. The team is rebuilding and doing a good job, we have a lot of youth. It still sickens me how much winning is the only enjoyment some of you get, and without it you are lame duck fans. Again I say shame on you to those who play the blame game. The GM seems to be doing a good job so far of rebuilding, I figured when he took over it would 5 years before we had a plus .500 team. Gotta have those years for draft picks, build some trade power out of our youth, find a game plan, and start fresh as we did.

endora60

Amen to that. The Blazers are Portland. (Besides, who wants the city left with only the poor Portland Pirates? That wouldn't be right.)

The Blazers aren't "my" team, but I've always enjoyed watching them. (Thank goodness for League Pass!) I remember them from the Drexler days and the Walton days, and I think people forget those glory days will return--sooner rather than later, probably. It's just hard to see out of the fog right now, that's all. It's natural for people to lose faith when things don't go well, but they'll be back.

Laurie

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Co-Co!

It's_GO_Time

Where is Ed when you need him.

chris_in_pdx

There's a difference between being a fan and a blind homer. I've probably been a loyal fan of this team since before you were alive, and even I am disgusted with the direction this franchise is headed in. If me being critical of the team and it's management because I feel a sense of civic ownership in a franchise that I've identified with and rooted for for decades doesn't pass your litmus test for being a "true fan", then I suppose we have diametrically opposing opinions, and for your info, your opinion is wrong.

I agree, the organization, players, and management have been doing that. They've blamed the city, the fans, the media, and the groups that took over the Rose Garden when THEY DECLARED BANKRUPTCY for their inability to make prudent and practical business decisions, yet still field a competitive basketball team, like dozens of other teams in other cities are somehow able to do... yet they also don't own their stadiums, and for that matter, they don't have multi-billionaire owners.

And the team got into the mess of being the "jailblazers" how? Oh yeah, bad trades and management blunders. Next.

Something wrong IS going on. This team was economically viable and healthy for 20 years before Paul Allen and his merry band of geeks got a hold of it. And that was in an extreme small market in the 70s and 80s when the big NBA money had yet to start rolling in. Now, all of the sudden (or not), the team just can't exist economically after 15 years of opening the bank vaults wide open. Gee, ya think?

Wow, I wish I lived in your world. How's the weather there?

To be a fan, you want to win. End of story. Your team should be either winning, or trying to win. Right now, I see that the team is trying to get to the point of winning.... in 4-5 years. And yet, I'm supposed to swallow the extreme losing of right now without batting an eyelash? Because they THINK they'll be good in 4 or 5 years? Sorry. From 1977 to 2003 the Blazers missed the playoffs... once. ONCE. They might have been mediocre at most time, but at least they were competitive. The players played hard. They TRIED. I don't see that from this team. One of the things that has kept teams like The Clippers and The Hawks down for so many years is a Culture of Losing. I am absolutely terrified of the "Culture Of Losing" taking hold in Portland after so many years of being successful. If that makes me a bad fan in your eyes, then so be it, but I consider myself ten times the fan that you are.

Why? Why do we "have to have those years of draft picks"? For 20+ years, the Blazers were able to stay in the top 6 (on average) of the Western Conference by making prudent trade decisions, develop underrated talent, and sticking to a vision of Blazer basketball that obviously has been lost. What's changed? Why do the Blazers need all these top flight draft picks suddenly to be successful? Why do the Blazers need to be terrible before they are good again? i don't get it, but then again, apparently I'm not a good fan.

B_&_B

WELCOME bowlesk123!

I completely agree with you.

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"People say we are coming, but I almost think it's to the point where we are here," he said. "I think it's no longer coming. We are here now."... Brandon Roy.

sa1177