A little blurry

These aren't that clear, but I'm combining two things my friend Luke does on his blog:

1. Using images instead of computer type (even if they're images of writing–it's not computer type).


2. Posting stuff from my moleskin. This is stuff I realized today.

I have to put it in writing

The Nuggets will beat the Lakers.

Reasons? I've got a few:

1. I hate the Lakers. That shapes everything I think. And I hate hearing my students talk about how good they are. Again, this shapes everything I think about this series.


2. Denver can play great defense. They did it enough times to be ranked 10th in defensive efficiency for the season, while being the first ranked team in pace. And that's pretty impressive because they're running a lot but still doing a good job of keeping teams from scoring a lot per 100 possessions. That still ends up being a lot of points, but shows some decent defense. The best example was that Seattle game when they won 168-116.


3. George Karl has been a good coach in the playoffs a few times. Three times, really. In 92-93 and 95-96 with Seattle, and in 2000-2001 with Milwaukee. Those teams were above .500 in the playoffs, but none of them won the finals. Still, if he can get everything together with those crazy guys, maybe it'll work.


4. While I don't think the Nuggets can do anything to stop Kobe, I think that they have a chance to completely shut down the front court help on that Lakers team. Camby and Martin should easily shut down any combination of big men that LA will trot out there. If that happens, Kobe might give up and try to win it on his own with his offense, instead of focusing on the defensive end shutting down 'Melo, which doesn't bode well for the Lakers – as I've already said – especially since Kobe won't have to put in that much effort to get his points. The extra effort won't get him that many more points, but the points that 'Melo will get with Kobe focusing on the offensive side will be enough. Barely.


5. The big three question marks for the Nuggets are going to come out and play well. Okay, I have no evidence for this, but the Nuggets will win if these three come to play in every game: J.R. Smith, Linas Kleiza, and Eduardo Najera.


6. Did I mention that I hate the Lakers? Yeah, that's important for this, and the one other important thing: I don't think anyone is picking the Nuggets. Didn't they learn from the Warriors last year? This is a team that won 50 games in the west. They showed glimpses of brilliance, and they're pretty tough to beat a mile up. If the Staples Center was some amazing place where the fans brought the ruckus, I'd say that there was no way Denver can steal a game in LA. But this is a stadium filled with celebrities who are there to be noticed.

Denver wins in six.

Henry Abbott on NPR

Here's some audio from an interview I heard on NPR's Marketplace today. Several reasons to post it here:

1. Henry Abbott from TrueHoop does the interview, and I love that guy.


2. The woman doing the interview for NPR used to be a big fan of the Blazers, but in the last few years she gave up. Hmm, that sounds like a lot of people. And raise your hand if you're surprised that someone from NPR grew up as a Blazer fan. If you have your hand raised, I haven't been educating you as well as I thought.

The last day of the season? Wow.

Umm, there is no good way for me to set up this clip. Crazy good.

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Accreditation stuff ended today. We did well, I think. I did really well, impressing the people that observed my class. They reported stuff to the math coach, who came and asked me for any of my notes for geometry since I won't be around next year. That conversation deteriorated when she asked if I had notes, and I had to tell her that most of my stuff either came from my head, the book, or from the best math teacher I've ever met. Anyway, I feel quite relieved, because just having those people around increased my stress level. I will now proceed to rival Tim Thomas in my level of mailing-it-in.

Hopefully that's not really true. Actually, I know it's not really true. But I can't see myself making sure that I do all of the paperwork stuff. Student stuff? Yes.

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I posted this on Blazer's Edge today, but that I'd double up and put it here too.

The Sports Guy included this tidbit in his column today on the NBA MVP.

39. LaMarcus Aldridge

Note to Portland fans: You were right, I was wrong. He's a keeper. Even if he reminds me so much of Charles Smith that I wouldn't be surprised if they lost a key playoff game some day because LeBron blocked his layup three straight times at the buzzer.

I thought that was appropriate, especially after he said that we should have tried to trade him at the deadline. But I was a little surprised and disappointed that Roy wasn't in his top 25. Maybe it's the Blazers colored glasses, but isn't Roy one of the 25 most valuable players in the league?

It's a great column, though, and even though I still believe Paul is the MVP, he makes a great case for KG.

By the way, I really like the way that SB Nation has revamped their set-up. Very good stuff.

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One last thing from the internet, and another thing that I put on Blazer's Edge. In his Games to pay attention to post on Ball Don't Lie, Kelly Dwyer said this today:

Portland at Phoenix

One last chance to call Portland a "lottery team" before they win 11 championships in 13 years.

I love reading this. Love it. So true.

I just want to be done

It got to 97º today. That's too hot.
I have grades due tomorrow, which I have to submit on paper forms with bubbled in comments and grades.
The accreditation team is probably at school right now, and will be there tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
I have formally applied for the open mathematics position at Roseburg High School for next year.

I just want to get out of California.

Tale of the tape: Roy vs. Bryant (it's all about the defense)

Yesterday as I was sitting at It's a Grind with my brother, both of us reading our daily dose of NBA news and blogs, I started talking to him about a specific element of the Blazers win over the Lakers on Tuesday night. Specifically, I was working out an idea that came to me concerning the Roy-Bryant match up. In his Late Wednesday Mini-Bullets, Henry over at TrueHoop quoted Michael Jordan from an article Jack McCallum wrote about him in 1989. Have I mentioned that I love the new SI Vault? The gist of the quote from Jordan was that the best way to defend him was to make him play defense against a guard who had a physical offensive game. This tired him out and kept him from being as physical against them on the other end. When I read the quote it reminded me that Jordan was an exceptional defender who focused on that even more than scoring.

What does that have to do with Kobe? I was shocked as I watched the KCAL 9 broadcast here in LA that Roy could play as well offensively as he did against Bryant. Several times Roy broke Bryant down on the edge, beat another guy, and made an easy layup. Bryant didn't do that to Roy nearly as badly on the other end. By my count, four of Roy's eight field goals were layups.
One of his field goals was a three, one was a wide open 22-footer, one was an eight-foot jump shot early, and the other was a nine-foot runner in the fourth. Of his seven missed shots, five were jumpers from outside the key, including two three point misses. On the other hand, Kobe made 11 of 26 from the field. Twelve of his fifteen misses were jump shots from outside the key, including five failed three point attempts. Of the ones that he made, one was a dunk, two were layups, two were three-pointers, two were four foot running j's, one was an eight-footer, one was a 21-foot jumper, and two of his shots don't have a distance on the ESPN play-by-play. If you aren't already bored by reading what shots were taken, you might be wondering why it matters. I mean, Bryant scored 34 and Roy only had 23 – Kobe was 10-13 from the stripe while Roy was 6-8, showing a good effort by each of them getting inside.

As I thought about the ways Roy scored on Bryant compared with the ways Bryant scored on Roy – and, in fairness, Outlaw – I realized that Kobe was working a lot harder for his shots than Brandon was. Roy was taking the lane when it was given, shooting open jumpers when they presented themselves, and directing the flow of the offense. But Kobe was often taking the time to force his way into the lane, or else use some combination of moves to set up his beautiful turn-around jumper. This is where the difference between Bryant and Jordan (as evidenced in the aforementioned quote) really stuck out to me: Bryant could have shut Roy down. He's that good of a defender. But instead, he spent more energy on making sure he got his points. And yes, he scored more than Roy. But I looked at the assists for each and what those assists led to, and it tells the tale that Roy actually contributed to more offensive production than Bryant did.

Bryant had five assists. Three of them were to Lamar Odom for layups (two) or dunks (one). The other two assists were from hitting Radmanovic outside for the three. That means Bryant scored 34 and was directly responsible for getting his teammates the ball for 12 more. In total, I'll say that Kobe created 46 of the Lakers' 103 points. Roy had a career-high tying 12 assists. Four of those set up three-point field goals, and the other eight went to guys making mid-range jumpers or layups. So Roy scored 23 of his own points, and was directly responsible for getting his teammates the ball for 28 more. In total, I'll say that Brandon created 51 of the Blazers' 112 points. Of course this doesn't take into account the fact that the Blazers might have given up points to the Lakers because of the way they defended Bryant, plays on which he got no statistical credit. I wouldn't suggest that those sorts of plays would be even with the same type for Roy on the Lakers' side, but I don't think they would be too far off, either, and since they are immeasurable I really can't speak to them.

Being the type of defender that Kobe Bryant is, I believe he had the ability not only to stop Roy from scoring 23, but from directly creating as much as he did for teammates. Certainly some of the blame must go to other LA defenders, but when you're as talented and highly regarded as Kobe is, you need to shut down the opposition. If Kobe had decided to make Roy work harder for his offense, he might have scored a few less points. But I really think that the reduction in Roy's contribution would have been far more significant. Yeah, there were many other factors in the game, but for the Lakers to win in the playoffs it's Kobe's defense that needs to be at its best, not his offense. His offense will take care of itself.

One last note: I realize that the Lakers were without any real low-post presence on defense, which also contributed to Roy's ability to drive. But the Blazers have been without their chosen low-post presence – Oden – all season, and were without their next best option – Joel Przybilla, thanks to a broken hand – in this one. That left the über-tough Channing Frye as the center. I love me some Channing, but he is not my first (or second or third or fourth) choice for a tough inside presence on defense.

From the SI Vault

Alright, this is what I did today. I found that Sports Illustrated's new SI Vault is awesome. I went through and got every article about the Blazers or Blazers players over the years. A few of them I ignored, mainly because the memories were too painful (see: Sam Bowie, the Clyde Drexler trade)otherwise, I think I've collected links to every story here. By headline and date. Browse away. I haven't read any yet, but I'm especially looking forward to the trio of articles from 1988 about Sabonis (twice) and Petrovic. But I also can't wait to read the full text of the Curry Kirkpatrick articles from the championship year. Here they are:

Geoff Who? and Mod Todd 11/02/1970
You might say he arrived in the Rick of time 11/19/1973
Centers of Interest 10/28/1974
Bill Walton won't you please play ball? 01/27/1975
But don't say he beefed up 11/13/1975
Beneficiaries in the Will 08/16/1976
Healthy, Wealthy and Size 12/13/1976
Couple of Babes in the Woods 05/09/1977
L.A. Couldn't Move the Mountain 05/23/1977
There's no place like home court 06/06/1977
All for one sure beats one for all 06/13/1977
A fever called Blazermania 10/31/1977
'Nobody, but nobody, is going to hurt my teammates' 10/31/1977
Going Like Blazers 02/13/1978
Why is This Man Eating Popcorn? 04/17/1978
Down Goes Big Bill, Up Go the Sonics 05/01/1978
Scorecard 08/14/1978
Off on a Wronged Foot 08/21/1978
The Big Push on the Oregon Trail 04/09/1979
They Said It 05/28/1979
Blazing a New Trail 03/23/1981
Everything you will ever want to know about the Blazers–And more 12/07/1981
More Than Meets the Eye 02/09/1987
Courting a Big Red 06/13/1988
The High-Priced Yugo 09/26/1988
So Near, So Far 10/17/1988
Is Anybody Happy Here? 01/16/1989
Rip City returns... with a BANG! 01/15/1990
When You're on Top, Life's a Breeze 03/11/1991
Driving For a Title 05/11/1992
The Salt Lake T Party 06/01/1992
From out of Nowhere 06/08/1992
On The Edge 06/15/1992
Catch This! 04/22/1996
High Points 02/10/1997
No. 3 Portland Trail Blazers 11/10/1997
Egoless Trip 03/22/1999
Around The Rim 04/05/1999
Who's The One? 05/10/1999
Hair-Raising Hero 06/07/1999
No Babe in the Woods 12/13/1999
L.A. Confidential 04/24/2000
Scout's Take 10/30/2000
1 Portland Trail Blazers 10/30/2000
Wells Spring 02/19/2001
Internal Combustion 03/12/2001
Losing Their Grip 12/24/2001
Lousy at a Luxury Price 12/16/2002
Point Taken 03/17/2003
Can This Man Save THE BLAZERS? 01/12/2004
Love and Basketball 11/14/2005
Bittersweet Success 11/13/2006
Dear Greg Oden 04/02/2007
The No. 1 Health Concern 09/24/2007

So there they are. I hope that's helpful, and that you get to read some great stuff. I'm looking forward to reading them all by the end of the summer. The pictures on this post are the only covers SI has run that ever really featured Blazers. There have been covers with Blazers getting run into or dunked on, or covers with future or former Blazers, but based on my search at the SI vault, these are the ones that actually feature Blazers.

No April Fool

Last night I finished watching Black Magic, the ESPN show about many of the Black players who helped integrate basketball in this country. It was a great show, and today I bought the soundtrack on iTunes because that was such a great part of the show. Actually, I bought the show on iTunes as well. So Apple made some money off of that show, at least from me. I'm thinking about using the show in class, if I can get a projector, as a reward at the end some days. It would be somewhat relevant because it's about history and oppression and making change. It's also just good, and I've reached the point where it seems that I'm mailing it in a little bit.

Speaking of that, my grades for third quarter are due next Monday, and I am not excited about making sure I've represented the progress of each of my students. Ugh. I hate grades. Also, the accreditation committee is visiting beginning next Sunday, and I'm not really excited about that either. Then again, as my roommate Eric said, if the accreditation of the school comes down to how good I'm doing, then the school really is in bad shape and probably doesn't deserve to keep its accreditation. Not that I think the school will lose accreditation, and not that I'm planning on a poor showing by myself, but it was a nice thing to keep me from feeling too much pressure.

I think I might head to a bar or someplace that I could watch the two college games soon, although I could watch fuzzy versions of the game at home. That's a decision to make, although I should make it soon, since the first game will probably start before I finish this post.

Just a little Blazer news: Martell Webster is having some heart issues, which is scary. Jack Brown at Deceptively Quick had a good little post about it, especially the YouTube video he embedded that shows Martell torching the Jazz. Go there to watch the video, if not to read his take.

Rudy is "90% sure" he's coming next year. I think we knew that, but it's still good for him to say it. I found that here (of course that's a link to OregonLive – those guys are great).

Alright, I don't think I have anything else to say. Look at the top of the page for something new I added to the blog. It's great. Oh, and the title of this post had nothing to do with the post except that it's my first entry of April.

A Clipper sweep

The last two nights set a record for me this season: most back-to-back Blazer games watched this season. I nearly went to the game last night at the Staples Center, but decided that I didn't want to deal with downtown and the blue line that late the night before finally flying to Chicago.

I wish I would have been there, if only to see Joel Przybilla completely destroy the Clippers on the boards. Przybilla was fantastic, and he brought some offense too. It really did look like a preview of what Oden could do next year. Interested in seeing how he's doing? This article will lead you through it. Great stuff from Jason Quick, as always.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy were once again great in the same game. It was Aldridge's ninth straight game over 20 points. That's another great sign for next season. If he can play like this consistently next year, and Roy stays the steady presence he has been all year, this team will be so good. Add Oden and Rudy Fernandez (who, according to Pritchard, is coming over next year) to this team and it's even more exciting than I would have thought.

Another great sign from these two games – the last three, actually – is the point guard play of Steve Blake. His defense has been a little shaky, and his shooting has actually been a little down. But the way he led the offense and his assist to turnover ratio has been really great. He has had 23 assists and one turnover in the last three games. If he can keep doing that next year, and Sergio Rodriguez can make a leap this summer, I don't think we need a new point guard. I know, that's risky to say, but I think it might be true.

Alright, I'm going to get back to reading The Breaks of the Game while I wait for my flight to leave. Stupid snow in Chicago. Stupid.

Snow in march. Boo.

I'm sitting in Long Beach drinking a vanilla latte at 11:39 am. I should be sitting on a plane above Utah or Colorado or Kansas. And I found out this would be the case at 4:22 this morning when my phone rang. I jolted awake and opened it to see the Utah number 801-993-8000. The winter storm that's been raging in Chicago was enough for them to cancel my flight six hours before it was to take off.

Because I'm flying JetBlue, there's nothing I can really do. There are only two flights from the west to Chicago on JetBlue each day, which means that all the flights for tomorrow were full. I'm scheduled to fly out Easter Sunday morning at 10:30 and land in Chicago at 4:29. I am currently a standby passenger for the 4:15 flight tomorrow afternoon, but that seems pretty unlikely. And that means I get to sit around today and tomorrow relaxing, figuring out how to use my time, and reading The Breaks of the Game, by David Halberstam. I think that's the end of my rant about my spring break debacle, except to say that I'm still flying back on Wednesday, cutting my trip from Friday-Wednesday (a nice length) to Sunday-Wednesday (far too short).

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Speaking of The Breaks of the Game, I'm really excited. I've been wanting to read this book for a very long time. It's been out of print for a while, and I'd been searching for it for about a year. I spent far too much for a used paperback, but I'm still happy to have it.

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The Breaks of the Game is about the downfall of the Portland Trailblazers in 1978-1979, and is a sort of microcosm of what was going on in the NBA at the time. This article is a commentary on the potential beginning of the end of Darius Miles' NBA career, and that could be seen as a microcosm of some things that are currently happening in the NBA. The article makes me really sad, but it's pretty good. And not long.

A quote and a mini-sermon

Jesus did not come to make us Christian; Jesus came to make us fully human.

––Hans Rookmaaker

A good friend has labeled himself as an "unrepentant sinner." This is infuriating to another friend of mine, so we talked about it for a while the other night. In the end, the label hit me because of the thing against which it is set up. Some might think the opposite of "unrepentant sinner" would be "repentant sinner." I agree. Sadly, though, many Christians instead live as though they are no-longer-sinners. We cover up to look like this, instead of openly and proudly calling ourselves repentant sinners, which is what we are. That's what my friend is really doing: being perfectly honest about who he is. He's being more honest than most of us dare to be. If we do not openly claim to be repentant sinners, then we might as well be unrepentant sinners.

A collage of things I hope to get in the summer of 2009

A collage of next year's starting line-up, in uniform

Still not finished

Okay, tons of thanks to Lewis for leading into this post: why would Portland do this? Won't this hinder the growth of the team together? What will Nash have in the tank in a few years?

Before I try to answer those questions, I need to fix one thing from the post yesterday. I left off a really important piece of the Suns roster in Grant Hill. I don't know how I did that. There are a few other guys on the roster too, but I think he was the only really important one I left off my made up two-deep depth chart. I was thinking that maybe Hill gets included in the deal, perhaps with Martell Webster coming over from Portland.

I don't know if that makes it more likely for Phoenix to do the deal, but I think it might because my whole idea is that they'd be blowing things up and trying to get younger and build from the ground up. Okay, whether or not that helps, here are the answers to those other questions.

1. Why does Portland do this?

Portland has the youngest team in the league right now. There was talk that Atlanta was younger after the trade for Bibby, but I think I saw somewhere else that this isn't true. Portland would be trading away three young players. One of whom is finally showing how much he can grow into his potential. One of whom was great as a rookie, but has been a little disappointing since then. And one of whom I love, but just isn't getting his chance with Portland and still needs more time to make mistakes and grow up. The other guy Portland would be trading is one of their few veterans, even though he isn't really that old. Portland would be willing to give up these guys because they'd be making a huge upgrade at the one position that's really a gigantic question still. Right now Blake is one of the main guys who brings veteran leadership, and Nash would do that to a far greater extent.


2. Won't this hinder the growth of the team together?

I think this would actually help the growth of the team. One of the problems with the inconsistency at point has been that we can't develop the team the way we want. This is supposed to become a great running team, but Jarrett Jack has trouble running the break, McMillan doesn't trust Sergio Rodriguez very much, and Blake, while good, still isn't as good as what we hope Sergio will be. The team is still built around Roy, Aldridge, and Oden, who will all be less than 24 next year. That's still young and still plenty of room to grow. In addition, we have another PG of the future stashed in Finland. Petteri Koponen has a ton of potential, much like Rodriguez, but would need a lot of time to develop. Having Nash on the team to help him develop in practice would be huge, and since Sergio is still just a great prospect, it makes sense to me to take the risk on another great prospect, especially if he could learn from Nash.

Also, this gives Jarrett Jack more job security as the back up point guard, which is good because many consider him the soul of this team to Brandon Roy's heart. This also frees up room for McRoberts to get a chance, Joel Freeland to come over – perhaps – and get his chance, and pairs down the rotation a little better. Again, even though this would make the team a lot older, we'd really only have two old guys: Nash and Raef LaFrentz. We'd have two seasoned veterans: Joel Przybilla and James Jones. The rest of the guys on the team would still be either young studs/role players (Roy, Aldridge, Oden, Fernandez, and Jack) or prospects with huge upside (Koponen, McRoberts, and Freeland). I left out Darius Miles, but who knows what that guy might do.


3. How much will Nash have left in the tank in a few years?

I actually don't think it really matters how much he'd have left for a few years, because his main role would be to run the team next season and as much of the one after as he could, and then he can hand the reigns to Koponen, who will have hopefully already stepped into the role of PG and team leader. Maybe Nash has three good years left, maybe he only has two, at the worst maybe he has just one. But bringing him over would help everyone else develop and would give Koponen a chance to become the sort of point guard who could run a championship team.

Again, I don;'t think the Suns would ever make this deal. I also don't know if Pritchard would do it. But, as much as I'd like to see this team grow into a dynasty as-is, I think this sort of move – and specifically this move – could be the thing that helps us make the jump from up-and-comer to championship contender in only one off season.

I think there's probably more to figure out, but that's as much as I've gotten so far.

One last thing: Nash's salary is so reasonable that this would hardly have an effect on our upcoming cap space, if we still felt the need to find the last piece at small forward.

An unfinished idea

Last night as I was talking to my brother I was inspired to begin thinking about a deal. I don't know what inspired me, especially since the Blazers were still losing to the Suns badly at that point. Maybe I was just thinking about the Suns because of the game, and realizing that their experiment is about to fail. Their window is about to close. They're going to need to rebuild. That means they'll need good picks and good young players, two things Portland has. So, if the window really does close for the Suns after this season, why not blow it up for real. That would mean trading away an old guy before all his value is gone. Of course I mean Steve Nash, who should never be traded. Also, I know that this is a homer deal. But I can see some things about it that could help Phoenix. Again, this is just the first effort, but what if the Suns received our first round picks in 2008 and 2010. The pick in 2010 probably won't be great, but this year we're a near lock for the lottery again, and they get the Hawks pick, which also looks like it'll be in the lottery because the 76ers are playing so well. In addition to the two picks, we give them three young guys who could flourish in the D'Antoni system: Travis Outlaw (Shawn Marion with a little less defense, more athleticism, and a prettier shot), Sergio Rodgriguez (a guy they drafted and should have kept, sort of like what they did with Nash), and Channing Frye (a decent big who can run some and hit the mid-range jumper pretty well, plus he'd be going back home to Arizona). The Blazers could also throw Steve Blake into the deal to give a stop-gap point guard while they dump the reigns into Sergio's hands.

Again, I don't think this deal is an easy sell for Phoenix, because they'd be trading a two time MVP for a platter of young guys, two of which are still pretty unproven. But it would give them this lineup to build around:

Also, I really haven't finished thinking this through. It might take getting another asset from Portland and the Blazers getting another player from Phoenix. And I left out the backup shooting guard, because I think the interchangeability of Barbosa and Bell, along with the interchangeability of Outlaw, Frye, and Diaw would take away the need for a backup shooting guard. Then again, with two lotter picks this year they could end up with a player like Mayo or Westbrook or Collison or somebody else who could help with that. Also, the potential for the Suns to take one guy like that and Kevin Love – a center who can start the break as well as anyone in the country – could be really intriguing. Love could end up starting alongside Stoudamire after Shaq's body finally stops working.

Tomorrow I'll try to write more about why I'd actually love to do this deal from Portland's standpoint. One last time: I know that Phoenix wouldn't do this. I know. I just wanted to try it.

I love this thing

I was playing on the lottery simulator some more today, and came up with these scenarios. The one I posted yesterday is the most likely, with us staying at the 13 spot and maybe nabbing Westbrook. (I said sad yesterday, but only because I wasn't thinking clearly. Westbrook could be perfect for us.)

Here are the basic ways it could fall, with Portland getting one, two, three, or 14. Yeah, everything else could be different, but I don't mind any of these four options. Here are the pictures, the initial picture is the way the lottery worked out, and the second picture is the potential draftee. Kudos galore to Chad Ford and ESPN for doing this every year.

Time waster? More like time betterer

One of my favorite ways to spend time is back: the NBA lottery simulator at ESPN. This is the most common result for Portland. Sad.

Save OUR sonics

No, I'm not a Sonics fan. But I do love the NBA. And I love the city of Seattle. And the Pacific Northwest is my home, even while I've been away from it periodically since 2000. Tomorrow David Stern, NBA commish, will be in Portland. He's doing an online chat...

I butchered that opportunity. Stern did the stupid chat today. I need to pay better attention. I wanted to organize a bunch of people to pester him with Seattle questions and questions about his friendship with Clay Bennett. Instead I'll just have to rely on the fans in Portland who are planning on showing him that people outside of Seattle care about the situation. I hope they do it, and do it well.

SAVE OUR SONICS. SAVE OUR SONICS. SAVE OUR SONICS.

Not a tumblr

I drove back from Phoenix today. It was a decent trip, especially because part of it included a phone conversation with my friend Luke and another part had a phone conversation with my brother. It's always good to talk to either of them. The weekend as a whole was great, mainly consisting of me playing Rock Band with various people. Saturday I played the game with a bunch of great kids that go to SCA. It was fun to be around high school students who like me and are clear about thanking me for the effect I've had on them. Last week was pretty much the opposite of that at school, so it was nice to get that affirmation in Phoenix. Sunday I played the game at Adam's house with a bunch of Adam and Phil's friends who were over for a birthday party. That was nice, too: hanging out with adults that are around my age.

I didn't get anything done for school over the weekend, but I've already gotten some of it done since getting back, and that's good. Sadly, I'm more excited about the end of the school year than I am about anything except maybe Chicago with Luke over spring break. I'm nearly positive that I'll take off after this year. That makes me sad but is also a little relieving.

The other thing I did in Phoenix was watch the NBA All-Star game with other NBA fans. That was fun, especially because of how well Brandon Roy played. I loved seeing him fill up the stat line and help the West come back at the end. My group of Suns-fans/friends had fun with me and how connected I was to Roy's performance. Really, I had no personal investment in it, but I certainly felt and acted as though I did. In addition to watching the game, I got to talk to them about the trades that have been flying around. Seriously, I applaud the Hawks for making the move to get Bibby. I hope that works out for them. And as a Blazer fan I'm glad that the Dallas deal finally looks like it is actually going through. I'm happy to have the window of another Western conference team closing soon, and Kidd closes the window sooner than Harris would have.

Oh, and Kinsey, one of the students from SCA, insisted over the weekend that I should join the ranks of those with a tumblr (her, Luke, and a few other people I like), but I refused and continue to refuse. Hooray for blogger.

Valentines day? Really?

Usually I don't care much about St. Valentine's day. I told many of my students today that they should celebrate it as they celebrate any other saint's day (which of course, for most of them, means to not celebrate at all). But as I've been sitting here outside It's a Grind checking online sorts of things one last time before heading home I saw a girl inside the coffee shop. She's cute. She's in the corner, with her laptop and coffee. And I heard enough tripe today about going out with girlfriends and such that it made me notice her more than I might usually. Of course, I'm not going to do anything about it but post it here. But still...St. Valentine's day.

A disgusting habit

I thought of this a while back, but my current circumstance reminded me. I'm considering a smoking habit. To say it better: I'm thinking about developing a smoking habit. I don't mean one of those three-packs-a-day addictions, but something more along the lines of once a month or so. And I'd rotate. This month I'd sit down some evening with a nice cigar and burn away the stress that's been building. Then, in a month, I'd have a couple nice cigarettes. The month after that I would stuff one month's worth of worries in my pipe and smoke it – along with some fine tobacco. No one in my family liked this idea very much when I told them.

My present circumstance made me remember this because I'm sitting outside It's a Grind, reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and partaking first-hand in my current vice – coffee – and second hand in this proposed new vice – tobacco. I'm enjoying the combination immensely.

I put this video up instead of a picture of It's a Grind. The 33 second mark is the part that has to do with the post, but sometimes I feel like I'm part of the whole thing, just from being in California.

Oh, and if there are people who read this because they want to read about sports, which had been my main topic for a long time: my apologies. Maybe I'll write about the Jim Zorn departure from Seattle soon, or spring training for the Braves, but since the Blazers have been down it's hard for me to write about them, and they're my favorite sports subject.

Moleskin (but I'm not Luke)

I bought some cashiers the other day when I was at Barnes and Noble with my parents. So far I've put two things down, but I'll share them here.

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Apple stores bring out the worst consumer part of me. I'm all eyes, hands, fingers, envy, greed, and customer. Book stores do that to me too, but it doesn't feel as bad because desiring a book feels infinitely healthier to me than desiring a nifty trendy technological gadget.

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I can't wait until next summer, when I have a legitimate summer without school. I don't know what I'll do, but it's going to be fantastic.

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Lastly: I got my truck yesterday. It's nice to have a vehicle again. Very nice.

A lot can happen between posts

Since I last posted something here a lot has happened. Last Tuesday I tried to destroy my shoulder during soccer practice. You might wonder how that could happen, since I’m coaching. Well, all of us coaches participate to some extent during practice. At the time we were scrimmaging, and I was playing in goal. One of the girls had a breakaway, so I rushed out of goal to close the angle and try to force the ball out of her possession. She did a good job of taking the shot, and the ball ricocheted off my legs and up. I scrambled to my feet to secure the ball before someone could score off the rebound. But the girls have been learning well, so two of them were right on it as it careened back down. Knowing that I couldn’t get to the ball before a shot, I tried to dive in front and towards the ball, hoping to block the shot. Instead I succeeded at landing on my forehead and my shoulder, arm outstretched. Incredible pain shot through my right arm. Our head coach took a look and decided that the shoulder wasn’t dislocated, and I was able to stand up. But I wasn’t able to rest the arm at a comfortable or even normal angle. My arm was positioned in a grotesque manner, slightly bent in and hanging out in front of me. Then instantly it was different. My arm seemed to have a muscle spasm, or some other involuntary movement, and shook itself out, landing in it’s proper resting place. It still hurt pretty badly, but no where near as badly as it had.

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That was Tuesday. My semester grades were due on Thursday morning, and I didn’t have them finished before then. I got up at 4:30 that morning to go to work on finishing them, and got them turned in on time. We have a grade, a citizenship mark, a work habits mark, and a spot for a comment. We are required to put one comment for every student. After we turn in the paper sheet we get a printed packet of everything that we bubbled in order to verify what we put for each student. As I checked the sheet, I was surprised to see the grades missing on the front page of students. Then the next. The grades ended up being absent on every page, while every other mark was there. At least I didn’t have to write everything back in by hand, but it was pretty amazing that only one section didn’t register with the scantron.

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The rest of the week went okay, with Thursday night providing a highlight as LOST returned to TV. But then came the Super Bowl. If it turns out that the Patriots really did some of the other things of which they’re now being accused, in addition to the illegal filming that I think is commonplace around the league, then I might turn on them. But otherwise I think they are a pretty good picture of the way a franchise should run, and I think that deserves a trophy. I also enjoy seeing impressive records, and 19-0 would have been the most impressive. Add in my hatred of the Giants and Eli Manning, and I was quite disappointed with the outcome on Sunday night. Quite disappointed.

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Oh, and this is most likely the vehicle I'm going to buy soon. (Clicking will download a pdf with the specs for the truck. If you don't want to see that, just look at the picture.)

There [was] blood

Today was the last day of the semester. As such the students had a minimum schedule – basically a half-day – and teachers got the afternoon to finish semester grades. Needless to say, I didn’t do hardly anything and have a ton of work before I can turn my grades in in Thursday morning.

I also was able to confront the student today about taking my iPod. I didn’t know how I wanted to do it, and I’m not sure it went well. I asked if he had found the book he was looking for, and then I asked if he had found my iPod. He was confused, and so I explained why I thought he might have found it. Then he had a decent explanation as to why I thought what I did. I wouldn’t have thought he’d steal from me, but then I did think that, and now I’m not sure again. More frustrating than losing my iPod is the dilemma of knowing whether I should believe him or not, and if not how I should pursue things. If I hadn’t broken my external hard drive with all my music on it this wouldn’t be as big of a deal, since I still have my iPod nano. But a lot of music that I like was only left on my old clunky classic white iPod. Still, I’ll get over it.

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I’m sitting here waiting for the bus to pick me up and take me to Rosa Parks station, where I hop on the blue line south to Long Beach. We were supposed to have a soccer game this afternoon, but because of the deluge these last few days the game was postponed until Monday. It’s nice to be getting home early for the second day in a row, but I’m disappointed that the girls didn’t get another chance to play this week.

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And now I’m on the 124, heading east on El Segundo. The ability to blog and commute really is one of the best things about having an inoperable car.

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Last night I watched “There will be blood” with my roommate Eric. It was as good as I had hoped. The story of an oil man and his thirst for money and success was compelling, and just as timely now as I’m sure it was when Upton Sinclair penned the book. P.T. Anderson did a great job bringing it to the screen, and I realized that there is one main aspect of his films that I really really love. Despite writing and directing movies that aren’t billed as “scary” or “funny,” Anderson creates scenes that fill me with dread or entice me to laugh. I was surprised last night by how many times I laughed out loud, and I was equally surprised by the number of times I cringed in fear, anticipating the next event. Daniel Day Lewis made me completely forget that Daniel Plainview was a character. Instead, I was drawn into his world, perplexed by his evil and buoyed by his success. The actor who played the young H.W. Plainview was also fantastic, inhabiting the character so fully that it seemed as if the actor must have had the same physical limitations as his character.

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I wrote that last paragraph from the blue line before stopping to have a conversation with a coworker for Compton Unified. He works on HVAC stuff. I have my ID badge on and he initiated the conversation because he saw it. I enjoyed that part of the trip even though I usually enjoy being silent on planes, trains, and buses. I’ve been writing this part on the 191b, heading from the Del Amo station to my stop at the intersection of McHelen and Wardlow. The 124 picked me up on El Segundo at around 3:25, just to give you an idea of my commute.

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The Blazers play their first home game in two weeks tonight at the Rose Garden. That seven game trip seemed pretty long, even if it only lasted twelve days. I’m excited for the six game home stand that is beginning this evening. The opponents in this stretch are all teams that I expect to beat, starting with Houston. Part of that expectation is because I have so much confidence in the team now, but I think part of it also has to do with some of the teams coming in being the sort of weak team that can’t hang with a good team at home. And we’re the best team at home in the NBA. That’s right. Portland has the best home record in the association. I might try to watch the game tonight, but it depends on what my roommates are doing.

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This has been as long a post as I’ve written in quite a while, and I’ve rambled more than I have in a while too. The bus is about to make the last few turns that take me to my stop, then it’s just a four or five minute walk to my house. That makes the total commute right around an hour.

A new post? YES!

Today I had a brand new experience as a teacher: I realized that one of my students stole from me. Some of the people who read this – maybe even both of you – might believe I should have expected it, but I disagree. Because the transmission in my Volvo is nearly destroyed, I’ve been commuting on public transportation for the last two weeks. This has actually allowed me to catch up on the podcasts to which I subscribe. That means I have my iPod with me all the time. Yesterday after my last period I rushed off to get to the soccer game I was coaching. In the process I left my iPod on a sort of hidden corner of my desk. The room is always locked from outside, and I was not at all concerned that the custodian might take it. I also left my laptop on my desk. When I came back from the game I didn’t even think about the iPod, because I was getting a ride to the train station with another teacher/coach, and because the downpour during the game had left me completely soaked.

Once the train started taking me south to Long Beach, though, I did think of the iPod. I didn’t think of it again until this morning, when I checked my stuff to make sure I had left it in my room. And then I thought of it when I got to my room. But looking around, especially where I thought I’d left it, I found no trace of the iPod.

I was frustrated by that, but didn’t worry about it too much. After school I saw the custodian who cleans my room and asked him if he’d seen it. He said no, but that he had let a student in to find a book he’d forgotten. Then he described the student. I knew precisely who it was, because the student had come in that morning to “check” for his book.

It’s not my personality to assume the worst of people, and usually I would think that he really was just checking to see if his book was in my room. But instead, I think he was covering his tracks a little bit. And that’s frustrating. I’m going to seek him out tomorrow, because he wasn’t in my class today.

One last note: I’m trying to get a better schedule figured out so that I can use my commute time to write blog posts. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but this is the first one I’ve actually composed on my way to or from school. It feels good.

(One last note: my iPod was of the last generation before they all went color. That's right, the kid who stole my iPod will probably not find a market for it, because it is completely obsolete.)

Happy New Year

I'm listening to the game in Utah right now. The Blazers are going for 14 straight. Today has been a mess of a day, with me trying to figure out what's wrong with my car. There is something messed up with the transmission, which I thought was just the fluid, then thought it wasn't, but now I think it might be again. Then there's the debacle with my tire. The way the Ducks destroyed USF today was pretty good for getting my mind of the other stuff, but not completely. But if Portland can pull out this fourteenth win, well, the car worries will fade at least for a little while.

My brother Stephen and I showed up at the Rose Quarter box office around 4:00 on Friday to pick up the tickets for the game. While we were there I asked about tickets to the Sunday game with Philly. The woman at the window told me that the three levels of tickets we would have been willing to buy were all sold out already. This was on Friday afternoon. That was disappointing and also pretty cool.

We stayed around so we could get into the arena early and explore a little bit. Even though I had been to games in the Rose Garden, this was the first time I really walked around much. There were a few cool exhibits, particularly some stuff celebrating the championship team from 1977 and the finals teams from the early 1990s. Once we got to our seats we realized that dad was stuck next to a particular type of fan. This was a 30 or 40 something year old man, pudgy, with a beard. He was talking during the game to the players and coaches. Yes, talking. And he was saying some amazing stuff. "Nate, get them to play 'D.'" Stuff like that. At halftime dad moved over and sat on the other side of Stephen.

I was hoping that the rest of the crowd would be crazy, but I was kind of surprised that it was a little subdued. Well, it was subdued until the latter part of the third quarter. When the team really turned it on the crowd got rowdier, and that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed being part of the "M-V-P" chant during Brandon Roy's free throws. Most of the time that chant started in one of the other cheap sections. But there was one time that the chant was nearly automatic throughout the crowd, and it was pretty exciting. It was that sort of thing that happened often at the end of the game, and it was great to experience.

Two notes about the game:

1. Martell Webster's game didn't look very good on offense or with his stats, but I loved watching him play. He was hustling, he was working hard on both sides of the court, he was rebounding, and I just loved it. Outlaw and Jones are great too, and they really do give us a pretty formidable trio of small forwards. But I love Webster.


2. Brandon Roy had another ridiculous layup in this game. I don't know if the highlight is floating around anywhere, so I'll just describe it. He got the ball at the top of the key, saw an opening, and took of for the hoop. As he took off, one of the Timberwolves stepped into the lane. I think it was Al Jefferson. Roy would have been called for a charge had he continued going up that way. So he didn't. He changed the axis of his body. Imagine a clock, with the ball as the center. His body rotated from six o'clock to around 7:30. He continued gliding through the air, and finished the layup softly with his right hand. It was beautiful. We all went nuts.


3. Alright, I know I said two, but since I'm actually putting this up long after the streak ended tonight, I'm including this part. LaMarcus Aldridge decided to show up on offense tonight. For real. He had a career high. And even though we lost, it was good to see the kid put the ball in the hoop a lot. I think that will continue this season some, but I am fairly certain he'll be doing this sort of thing consistently in the next few years.

That's as much as I really have about the game from the other day. It was great to see, and I'm glad we ran the streak to 13. Now it's important to see how the team responds on this road trip.

Christmas Day running diary

5:05 pm Here I am, sitting in the house I helped my parents build, on Christmas day, getting ready to watch the first Blazer game of this win streak. I just said “this” win streak, because I believe that the streak will continue tonight.

5:08 pm I love the stat they just showed. Portland is the best team on Christmas day all-time, and Seattle is the worst on Christmas all-time. While I was typing that the Blazers got three offensive rebounds and finally put their first points up.

5:10 pm Beautiful steal by Martell. It’s good to see him working hard like that. Now he needs to get both of these free throws. Nope, one-of-two. We need to start pushing it inside and stop relying on our poor jump shooting.

5:12 pm Just after I said that, Roy hit Przybilla for a nice dunk. It’s good to see the vanilla thrilla throwing it down like that.

5:15 pm Steve Blake is getting a lot of open looks and needs to start hitting those shots. And now the Blazers have given up the lead. They need to calm down a little bit.

5:16 pm Boom. Webster drills a three pointer off a kick out from Roy.

5:19 pm I just checked the Blazer station, but for some reason the picture n my parents’ new TV is way better on ESPN, so I’ll continue listening to these announcers instead of the Blazers guys.

5:21 pm Great pass by Channing Frye, good finish by Roy, but he can’t get the and-one. Fortunately the Sonics are terrible at rebounding and throw it out of bounds.

5:23 pm Jarrett Jack doing what he does well, driving to the hoop. And wow, Wally Szczerbiak just hit another three pointer. Thankfully Frye made a jumper. Other than the opening jitters, this has been better game than the Miami-Cleveland game this morning. That game was terrible. I expected that it would be, but still. Eww. The Lakers and Suns, on the other hand, played great basketball. That was fun to watch.

5:27 pm Did you see Roy juke Durant out of his shorts a few minutes ago? That was great. And then Brandn just rose up and put it through.

5:28 pm Sergio Rodriguez is looking good in his quick stint for Roy right now. El Mago making magic happen.

5:30 pm That first quarter wasn’t great, but 24 points for each team isn’t bad when we started so poorly.

5:32 pm Apparently there’s a new American Pie movie, and guess what: there are girls in it, and it’s about sex. Man, that sounds hilarious.

5:34 pm Jack just made another great drive. He is really good at that. And Travis Outlaw is great at shooting over anyone. He just elevated to drain that jumper.

5:36 pm WOW. Beautiful pass inside from Rodriguez to James Jones, and Jones THREW that down. As the announcers just noted, the second unit for this Portland team has been playing so well and they’re doing it again today.

5:38 pm That was a terrible call. They just called Jeff Green for the charge, but Channing Frye pushed him. Boo. Oh well, I’ll take it.

5:44 pm Jack has eight now, which is great, but Szczerbiak just hit another three.

5:45 pm Collison just completed the three point play to tie the game back up. This really does look like better basketball than the first game today.

5:48 pm Apparently Greg Oden had some sort of surgery on his knee before the season started. I also just found out that he’s supposed to be good. Man, just imagine what this team could be like with him back. (Oh, and Przybilla just made both free throws. He’s improved that aspect of his game so much.)

5:50 pm That was a terrible foul call. Przybilla played great defense on that, but they called him. Lame. The ball never lies, then Przybilla gets the rebound and gets fouled. That worked out.

5:53 pm Blake just missed another open jumper. Blech. Roy then comes back with a good drive-and-dish to Przybilla, but he was on the baseline. And now another terrible foul call when it should have been a travel.

5:57 pm Durant just made his first really pretty shot. That was nice. Of course, on his next play he traveled.

5:58 pm Blake finally hit a jumper. This one was behind the arc, where he has been shooting better than everywhere else on the floor.

6:00 pm Jarrett Jack is filling in nicely for Roy, who is in the locker room after getting hit with a Chris Wilcox elbow. We need to come out really strong in the second half.

6:02 pm At halftime we’re ahead by two, after having a pretty poor first half, so that’s not too bad.

6:06 pm Scott Van Pelt is a genius. “The Boston Three Party.” I love it. Although seeing Garnett, Pierce, and Allen do the Three Amigos salute was the best part of that commercial.

6:18 pm Red Bull is shameless. Geez. “Start with practice and work our way back to theory.” I’m sure that’s how my friend J-Lew studied biology in college.

6:21 pm Wow, Jon Barry just made two great jokes.

6:24 pm Ugh. This is a rough shooting game. R-O-U-G-H.

6:25 pm Jon Barry just made a joke about streaking and Will Ferrell in the movie Old School. This guy is culturally relevant.

6:26 pm Roy is starting to hit now. And there is LaMarcus Aldridge. Pretty basketball right there with that turnaround by LA.

6:30 pm There was a beautiful play by Roy and Przybilla, once again highlighting the progression of the big man’s offensive game this season.

6:31 pm FAST BREAK POINTS!! Portland has so much trouble getting those, it’s good whenever we can find some.

6:34 pm ESPN just showed a great stat: Portland didn’t have any field goals in the last five minutes, even though they just went up by ten. I think they had the wrong team there. Oh, and Roy is playing really well right now.

6:36 pm Brandon Roy. Brandon Roy. Brandon Roy. Brandon Roy. (I think he must have just heard that he didn’t win his third consecutive western conference player of the week. He has 11 points in the quarter.)

6:41 pm The Sonics just made their first field goal in 12 attempts. Portland has been playing pretty good defense. And there Channing Frye knocks down another jumper.

6:43 pm Kevin Durant, everybody! He just tripped over the ball and himself. No ceiling, right Bill Simmons?

6:44 pm Durant just absolutely swatted a runner by Jack. I change the tone of my last comment: now it’s slightly less smarmy.

6:47 pm Sloppy play right there by Jack on defense.

6:48 pm Shades of old Travis Outlaw on his last ill-advised jumper and poor defense/foul on a Jeff green lay-up.

6:50 pm The second unit didn’t look as good at the end of that quarter, but they’re still up by eight. Brandon Roy was so good during the third quarter, and that was great to see.

6:54 pm Nice steal by El Mago to start the fourth quarter.

6:57 pm The Sonics are shooting well again, which is tough for us.

6:58 pm I’m really excited to see Roy come in and take over the fourth quarter, but it’s also nice to see Channing continue to make those mid-range jumpers.

7:04 pm Channing Frye just nailed another jumper. That is soooo good to see.

7:08 pm Jarrett Jack just took us shopping. It was fine until one of the announcers said that Jack is a “single male addicted to retail.” Yikes.

7:12 pm The Blazers are taking far too long with the ball, and waiting until the end of the shot clock. It’s making for some pretty ugly basketball right now.

7:16 pm I really don’t like this “wired” thing the NBA is doing now. It doesn’t really seem to add any insight, and it’s mainly just annoying.

7:18 pm It’s nice to see Jack having another good game. The same for Przybilla. He has 16 rebounds. Once again the team is getting it done by having various people step up well.

7:21 pm Well, we didn’t play that well again today. It is exciting that we keep winning when we’re not playing that well.

7:23 pm Neil Everett just said that the Blazers may never lose again. I’ll end this on that note...(merry Christmas)

A birthday blog (a day late)

Stephen and I are driving right now. We left Roseburg this morning a little after 6:00 and have been driving since then. When I say that Stephen and I are driving, I mean that I drove for a while and now he is. I’m not trying to write this post while holding the wheel.

We just finished the last episode of The Basketball Jones podcast for 2007. Again, to the few people who read this, if you haven’t yet subscribed to that podcast on iTunes, you should. They are fantastic.

Yesterday it took me an hour and a half to get caught up on all the online coverage of the Blazers after their win streak reached 10 Friday night at home against the Nuggets. They now have the longest win streak of anyone in the NBA this season, and once again they had to come back from being down by seven at the beginning of the fourth quarter. On top of that, the game was decided in the end by a Brandon Roy block of a Carmelo Anthony jump hook and a Travis Outlaw swat of a Linas Kleiza desperation three. It’s good to see guys stepping up in the fourth quarter, and those two have been doing it consistently throughout this winning streak.

All the coverage and the win really were the best things about my birthday. Not that I didn’t enjoy yesterday, but just that I am so excited about how this team is doing. Stephen and I were talking about it in the car, and it doesn’t make sense that everyone is as surprised as they are. Surprised? Yes. But this surprised? I don’t think we should be. Yeah, we traded away our leading scorer and rebounder. Yes, we have the third youngest team in the history of the association. Sure, we’re without the number one overall pick from last year’s draft and the guy many envisioned as the savior of the franchise. But the hallmark of this team is their chemistry and how much fun they’re having together, with everyone contributing. We couldn’t have expected that when the team started playing together five weeks before training camp? Shouldn’t we have foreseen this type of beyond-their-years-maturity from a bunch of guys who chose to get together, without pay, more than a month before they had to? I think so. And yes, that still makes this really surprising, but not completely surprising.

My battery is about to run out, so I’m shutting the computer down for the rest of the trip. But I wanted to share a little post-birthday thanks to the team for making it a great one, and a little Christmas cheer to anyone who makes sure I have a few readers.

I forgot to mention

When I did that quick update on Roy I forgot one important note: he missed practice yesterday with the flue, and said that he was playing tonight at around 70%. That certainly isn't the same sickness MJ played through in The Flue Game, but to do what Roy did while being a little under the weather is pretty good. Especially for a second year player. Oh, and that second year player really is making a very strong case to be Western Conference Player of the week for a third straight, and then conference player of the month. If he keeps this up, he'll be battling with Aldridge and Outlaw for most improved for sure. Here's the box score for your perusal.

(Trying to settle nerves and calm expectations...)

I love listening to these games online, but I really need to get league pass when I come back after Christmas so I can watch them.

Brandon Roy is awesome

With three and a half minutes left in the third quarter, Roy has 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. Oh yeah, and his shooting line is this: 8/11 from the field, 1/1 from the line, and 3/5 from behind the arc.

Dumping it all on you

I should really be grading quizzes right now, but I have too much to blog about.

Firstly, I have a lot of links to put up. Some aren't as new, and I forget where all of these were found, but it's just a ton of Blazers stuff.

Seriously, here we go:

This is a surprisingly good take on the team so far, something that surprised me even more because of where I found it. Yeah, that's some bias creeping in, which is too bad. This is really just one of the articles I've read that has the best perspective.

This is from the Toronto Star, and is only in a sidebar:

A scout said last week something along the lines of "in two or three years, no one's going to want to play Portland." Well, no one wants to play them now, either. The Blazers rattled off their seventh win in a row Sunday and the Raptors get them tomorrow night.

I don't think I agree with much in this article by Lang Whitaker over at Slam, but I'm happy to have people around the country arguing about Portland at all.

I really enjoyed his article about the winning streak. It's from a blog put out by the Washington Post, with this post being written by Michael Lee. I enjoy the stories that come out of DC, partly because they're good, but also because they write about the Blazers thanks to the Steve Blake connection. Because of that, they have a good focus on the role players for the Blazers, and that's been the main reason for the streak (other than Roy and McMillan, of course).

This is just another one talking about how good the Blazers have been during the streak. And this one is sort of similar, from Hoopsworld. Oh yeah, this one is from RealGM, and talks about how Portland has won all these games, too.

This might be my favorite article link of the day, because it provides a ton of insight into how the Blazers have done this, focusing on the development of Travis Outlaw (with a little Martell Webster thrown in).

Now for a few a/v links.

I called in to The Basketball Jones last night on my way to pick up my roommate Eric from the airport, and today I made the podcast. You should listen to the whole thing, but if you just want to hear what I have to say, go to the 15:45 mark. Oh, and you should just subscribe to their podcast on iTunes. It's great.

My second a/v link is to an interview Brandon Roy did with Jim Rome. I hate Rome, but there's a point in the podcast that is amazing (oh yeah, it will open up in iTunes, sorry about that): Roy mentions that Pritchard asked him what he would think of them signing Steve Blake before they did it. He also asked who they should draft, but that seems like less of a big deal to me. Roy was asked before they made a move for a free agent (a move that has looked pretty good so far this year, despite what many said about it).

And the last link I'll put here, even though I'm embedding the video. Kelly Dwyer is doing awesome things on Yahoo! Sports. So visit his blog.



There you have it. Now I'm going to listen to the Blazers' attempt at number nine. Down by two, 6-4, as of this second.

Kelly Dwyer puts everything in perspective

This quote was too good not to include in a post. It's from Kelly Dwyer's blog on Yahoo! sports.

Not many NBA teams could lose enough games to grab the first pick in the draft, trade its leading scorer and rebounder, lose said number one pick for the season to injury and still roar out of the gate by winning half of its first 24 games. This is a special team, and there's no point in pushing Aldridge back into the lineup too soon just to sustain a surprising turn of mediocrity.

When he puts it that way, I can't even deal with how giddy I get about the team now and the team of the future. These kids are special, and I love being a fan. Less than ten minutes until tip-off against the Hornets to go for eight in a row. Here's hoping...

Oh yeah, and how great s it that Roy won his deserved second straight player-of-the-week for the western conference? I'll tell you how great: really really great.

I'm trying something new...

Here it goes, press play if you want to hear the first attempt. Here's a link to some people who do this very well.

Look! A widget!

I put a widget on the sidebar to the right so that people will vote for LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy. So only use it if that's how you're going to vote.

I kid, I kid. Vote for whomever you want. But even with the poor stretch he had, I think Roy deserves your consideration. And I'm voting for Aldridge everyday because I'm a homer.

Brandon Roy is good at basketball

Understatement? Yes. I was trying to embed the highlights from NBA.com, but had no luck. Instead you'll just have to click this link or the title of the post to see Roy look the way Wade is supposed to.

The signing bonus

I think I wrote about it here, but even if I didn't, I know I told most of my friends: I received a "signing bonus" for coming to teach in Compton. For some reason I remember it as $3,500 bonus per year for up to three years. Apparently I remembered incorrectly, as I went in today to actually sign for it. The sheet says that the bonus is for $11,000, but spread over four years. Oh yeah, and it's on condition of staying at least two years. So I had to sign today saying that I wouldn't apply for any other jobs or take any other jobs before my second year is up. So I did. And the whole time I was reading the fine print, I was trying to figure out if it was worth paying back later to have the money now – you know – just in case I decide to leave after one year. And that still seems like a distinct possibility. I did decide that it was worth it, because I have enough bills now that it will be good to get a little extra money in early January. That feels especially true since I just paid a bunch of those bills. Medical bills are a pain. Oh yeah, and on the sheet it said the bonus was a "recruitment" bonus, but I really know that I'm more like a star athlete than most of you, what with my signing bonus.

I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart

I received my paycheck today. I deposited it shortly after receiving it. I will be paying my rent for the month tomorrow. Even with all that, I'll have more money in my bank account than I have had for a long time. Usually that wouldn't do much to make me happy, but considering the predicament I've gotten myself into, that's a good thing. I still owe several doctors and the hospital and ambulance company from this summer. In fact, I'm probably slightly delinquent on payments to them. In addition, I haven't finished registering my car in California, which means I probably owe some late fees and need to get that finished. Oh yeah, and I need to start my insurance coverage down here. I'm pretty glad my brother's car is down here for me to borrow when I need it. You know, like now. I also just paid about $900 to fix several things that were wrong with my car, which was part of the reason I hadn't finished taking care of registration stuff yet. Then there's the student loans that I thought were in a grace period. Nope, that only happens once. I owe some back payments there, too. So it's pretty good that I have this current surplus, so that I can try to take care of this stuff. Of course, lastly, I still owe my parents money for all the cash they put into my move down here. If I totaled it up, I certainly owe more than I have. But I can actually make a significant dent in most of it, and that is a place I haven't been for a while. Which is why, for the first time in a long time, I'm really excited to have some money.

The title of this post is a quote from e e cummings, and it's fantastic.