Chandler sprains ankle Sunday night [Archive]

DPG21920

10-07-2008, 01:16 PM

Fortunately not as much of a mess as the Pistons. Have fun watching your boy Sheed this year.

Don't be too sure, this looks like it could get messy:

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- It's one of those lazy summer days in the South, when the warm, thick air sticks to you like a shirt and the June bugs create such a buzz in the trees you'd swear they are nervous.
Bruce Ely / The Oregonian

It is on this day that Travis Outlaw decides to go on a walk.

To Outlaw, the rattling of the June bugs overhead is a peaceful sound, a reminder that he is in Mississippi, and back home in Starkville. His motive for a walk is twofold: In Mississippi, Outlaw notes, it's best to be moving when you are outside, lest the red bugs and fleas have their way with your legs and ankles.

But, really, Outlaw wants to survey his recently purchased 4.9 acres and think aloud about his job as the standout sixth man of the Trail Blazers, and the challenges that await in Portland this month when he returns for training camp.

"I think better when I'm walking," Outlaw says.

It's been awhile since Outlaw has strolled through his backyard. When he bought the land, and the 7,000 square foot home on it, this summer for $542,000, the backyard was an impenetrable forest of trees and brush. But he is planning to build a swimming pool and a full basketball court, so hundreds of trees and bushes have been cleared.

As he weaves through the remaining trees and thinks about the upcoming season, he is unable to pinpoint his exact feelings. He has never been more confident in his game, he says, but he has also never had so many doubts about an upcoming season.

He knows that with his springy legs, he can get his shot off against anyone simply by elevating over them. But he wonders if he will get enough attempts this season with the arrival of Jerryd Bayless, a shoot-first, pass-second guard, and Rudy Fernandez, a free-wheeling, long-range bomber. Both are expected to play with Outlaw on the second unit.

"I saw Bayless have a great Summer League," Outlaw says. "And Rudy, he's having a great Olympics, you know? Shots are going to go down somewhere, and I feel I'm the lowest guy on the totem pole, so it may be me."

He came to Portland in 2003, right out of Starkville High. That makes him the longest-tenured Blazer, and he notes that he has seen a lot in his time -- from the self-destruction of Bonzi Wells and the trade request of a disgruntled Rasheed Wallace to the franchise's passing fancies that were Sebastian Telfair, Zach Randolph and Darius Miles.

With that perspective, he ponders his place with the franchise's upswing. He has experienced enough success -- last season hitting game-winning shots at Memphis and Atlanta and finishing ninth in the sixth man of the year voting -- that he thinks he could one day be an All-Star. But he wonders whether that potential will be stifled on a team built around Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden.

And all of that feeds his apprehension of how the team perceives him as he enters what could be a contract year.

"We have a really good team," Outlaw says. "But I don't know if they are going to be able to keep us together."

His mood never dwells on his apprehensions. It seems every time they arise, he gathers in his surroundings, be it listening to the June bugs, taking in the scenery at the secluded pond he fishes, or embracing the comfort of family. It seems to ground him, and he becomes the man that is so familiar in Portland: gentle, respectful and humble.

"Things come to you in due time," Outlaw says late one night. "If God has it in his will, then that's how it's gonna be."

So he is content to wait another year, perhaps two, for his personal aspirations to take precedence. But he wants to make one thing clear: He is not content remaining with the status quo of his game.

"I don't want to be a sixth man forever," Outlaw says.

So he emphatically declares that Portland fans will see a different Outlaw this season. One who is confident. One who will hit the corner three-pointer. One who can create his own shot. And one who will rebound. In fact, his personal goal this season is to average 16 points and eight rebounds, marked increases from his career-high averages last season of 13.3 points and 4.6 rebounds.

"I'm rejuvenated. I came home," Outlaw said. "I'm ready. I'm ready for the season now."

There's not much of a chance for conversation when riding as a passenger in Outlaw's black Cadillac Escalade, one of three cars he owns. The stereo is usually cranked, and almost exclusively, the speakers bulge to the beat of Outlaw's favorite artist, Lil Wayne.

His head bobs to the beat, and he does his best to keep up with the lyrics, boasting beforehand that his voice is something to behold. The only thing that breaks his concentration on the music is the constant need to acknowledge people.

He gives a wave to the kids on bikes on his street. A honk to a familiar car. A nod and a wave to four men hanging out in a parking lot, one of whom is wearing a red Martell Webster Blazers jersey. All of the people, it appears, know that the thumping black SUV belongs to Outlaw, the town's second most famous athlete next to NFL great Jerry Rice.

So it's no surprise when Outlaw pulls into a local eatery for lunch that he is instantly recognized by two police officers in the back, and by four elderly women at a table in the corner.

After ordering at the counter, he visits the table of the gray-haired women, acknowledging each by going around the table to give a hug.

It's the type of greeting one gives in a small town like Starkville, which has 25,000 people and is home to Mississippi State University. It's a friendly town, bonded in part by a fierce loyalty to its Bulldogs. Stone statues of the school's mascot are prevalent around town, just as it's a given upon entering any eatery, coffee shop or gas station that several people will be sporting some form of maroon MSU gear.

"My personality is mostly how everybody acts (here) -- easygoing," Outlaw says. "There's not a lot of uptight people here. It's basically kind of like, 'We OK with everything. We just be ourselves.'"

On cue, Outlaw in the eatery begins to shed the bashful, quiet persona he carries in Portland. He morphs into his comfort zone, his Mississippi self, where he trash talks with his older brother, John Jr., and his cousin, Kenny, a lieutenant with the MSU police force, and makes jokes about how his dad critiques his game.

All of it is done in a rapid-fire Mississippi drawl, which is often accentuated by emphatic changes in octave and wide-ranging facial expressions. It takes an accomplished ear to decipher the speed and the drawl, so Outlaw often finds himself repeating phrases to out-of-towners.

"Oh, my bad," he says sheepishly after he receives a confused look. "Was it that bad? I asked did you fly into the Golden Triangle (airport)?"

Outlaw really gets going during this lunch, because the conversation turns to the NBA, and eventually, his game. And this summer, if the topic is Outlaw's game, the direction is inevitably going to steer toward his shot attempts.

The conversation starts with Outlaw asking how close he was to being traded to Memphis for Mike Miller, but quickly veers to Denver's Carmelo Anthony, who the table feels was asking for a trade.

"I don't understand why you would want to be traded when you have the green light to shoot from half court?" Outlaw says. "You give me that type of leeway boy, I be there ... I'm going to retire there. Give me the green light: 'Trav, you get to shoot whenever you want to, there ain't no such thing as a bad shot...'"

He shakes his head at the thought.

Outlaw averaged 11.8 shots per game last season -- third highest on the Blazers behind Roy and Aldridge -- and he was given free rein to create his own shot, particularly in the fourth quarter. But he says he would like to average 15 shots this season -- the amount Roy and Aldridge averaged last season -- and disputes the notion that he had the green light with the Blazers.

"Noooo. Noooo," Outlaw says about the green light, prompting his imitation of Blazers coach Nate McMillan. "'Now Travis, that shot, you can get something better than that.'"

John, his brother, agrees with McMillan's theory, that Outlaw could drive more and get more dunks or free throw attempts instead of settling for the jumper. But Outlaw doesn't want to hear any of it.

"Now, Carmelo, he's doing 360 (degree) fades, and George Karl is over there (he claps his hands) 'That's all right,'" Outlaw says. "Let me get a light like that. I be trying some stuff."

He has, in essence, fallen in love with his jumper, and is not shy about admitting it. He calls his jumpers "wet" because they splash through the net.

"I shoot jumpers like layups," Outlaw says. "Sometimes I get on a fast break and I want to pull up."

He is hands-down the best dunker on the Blazers, so much so that his teammates have urged him to take part in the All-Star dunk contest, but Outlaw shied away from the chance. It's not that he doesn't like dunking, but the jumper has taken so much time and effort to perfect that he has a hard time straying from it.

"I love the dunk. If I can catch you up under the rim slippin', I'm all for it," Outlaw says. "But I like to see it go through the net. Ever since Kobe shot that jumper and did that little mug thing, where he be cocky ... I want to try that. I want to hit the jumper then walk off looking at the crowd."