tlongII
10-14-2009, 09:19 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2009/10/canzano_embrace_the_blazers_no.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/john_canzano_impact/photo/blazers-celebration-1977jpg-98a373451ae6894b_large.jpg
The celebration was on at Memorial Coliseum on June 5, 1977, after the Blazers won the NBA championship. With the team back at Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night, and with Bill Schonely at the microphone and the players wearing throwback uniforms, embrace the past and be a kid again.
The game is at Memorial Coliseum. Bill Schonely, the first play-by-play broadcaster in Trail Blazers history, will dust off his pipes and call some action. And the uniforms will be throwbacks. And the prices will be rolled back -- tickets at $19.70.
What I'm saying is, you're a kid again today.
Maybe you'll think about watching Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas. Or maybe you'll sift through a dresser drawer looking for an old ticket stub you saved. Or turn on the radio broadcast and hear those familiar trumpets and let them take you right back to your parents' living room, or maybe your grandfather's garage.
Maybe you'll close your eyes and think you smell his cologne.
I know you will. You've told me for a better part of the last decade that thinking back about your professional basketball team does this to you.
Look. Portland takes a hit for being a small market. It gets called hokey because when Greg Oden comes to town, 5,000 of you show up at Pioneer Courthouse Square to greet him. Outsiders watched you jump around, singing and dancing during that Blazers rally last season -- a celebration thrown not for winning an NBA title but for simply reaching the playoffs -- and said you lacked urban polish and refinement.
They're woefully unaware of what passion looks like in places like Portland.
When most fans in other cities see an NBA player walking down the street they approach, ask for an autograph or to take a photograph with them so they can post it on Facebook. But here, some of you saw newbie point guard Andre Miller in the mall and walked up, shook his hand, and said, "So glad you're here." You're different like that.
Embrace it.
Especially today. Because the Blazers have given us all an opportunity to remember the past, and revisit a simpler time. And it feels like a place that gets bagged on as provincial should be better than others at revisiting and celebrating its past.
You're a kid again today. You're on the playground, bantering about tonight's Blazers game. You're knocking off school, and running the final few blocks home because it won't be long before tipoff. You're on the living room floor, posting up your little brother, telling him you're Walton.
Today, for a few hours, don't let yourself get weighed down by our country's financial crisis, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the regular American hassles of adult life. No job burdens. No neighbor issues. If only for one day, set it all down like it's a bag of bricks and be a kid again.
Your big worry: Cotton candy or Cracker Jack?
Memorial Coliseum is an old backyard tree house today. Climb up the ladder again. Duck beneath the door. Run your fingers over the railings, and remember what it was like to hang from them when your legs would dangle.
Stand, and holler if you're inside Memorial Coliseum. And if you're not, gather your own children around the radio just before tipoff, and look into their hopeful eyes and explain what it was like to be just like them so many years before.
When those beautiful trumpets sound, tell your children what it reminds you about. Because someday, I have no doubt that they'll gather their children and remember this team, with you.
Brandon Roy will be in uniform. So, too, will LaMarcus Aldridge, Steve Blake and Nic Batum. And it will be Nate McMillan, not Dr. Jack Ramsay, on the bench as coach.
But you know how the faces change, and how time rolls. And you understand the value in reconnecting with your past. You remember the thrilling victories, and the championship parade. But also, you remember what it was to start from scratch, and to rebuild.
You know the names, and dates. You remember where you were when they won it all, and when they blew a 15-point lead to the Lakers. You remember the butterflies, and the sting. And everything in between.
What I'm talking about now is Blazers history.
It's yours.
Not just today. Always.
http://media.oregonlive.com/john_canzano_impact/photo/blazers-celebration-1977jpg-98a373451ae6894b_large.jpg
The celebration was on at Memorial Coliseum on June 5, 1977, after the Blazers won the NBA championship. With the team back at Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night, and with Bill Schonely at the microphone and the players wearing throwback uniforms, embrace the past and be a kid again.
The game is at Memorial Coliseum. Bill Schonely, the first play-by-play broadcaster in Trail Blazers history, will dust off his pipes and call some action. And the uniforms will be throwbacks. And the prices will be rolled back -- tickets at $19.70.
What I'm saying is, you're a kid again today.
Maybe you'll think about watching Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas. Or maybe you'll sift through a dresser drawer looking for an old ticket stub you saved. Or turn on the radio broadcast and hear those familiar trumpets and let them take you right back to your parents' living room, or maybe your grandfather's garage.
Maybe you'll close your eyes and think you smell his cologne.
I know you will. You've told me for a better part of the last decade that thinking back about your professional basketball team does this to you.
Look. Portland takes a hit for being a small market. It gets called hokey because when Greg Oden comes to town, 5,000 of you show up at Pioneer Courthouse Square to greet him. Outsiders watched you jump around, singing and dancing during that Blazers rally last season -- a celebration thrown not for winning an NBA title but for simply reaching the playoffs -- and said you lacked urban polish and refinement.
They're woefully unaware of what passion looks like in places like Portland.
When most fans in other cities see an NBA player walking down the street they approach, ask for an autograph or to take a photograph with them so they can post it on Facebook. But here, some of you saw newbie point guard Andre Miller in the mall and walked up, shook his hand, and said, "So glad you're here." You're different like that.
Embrace it.
Especially today. Because the Blazers have given us all an opportunity to remember the past, and revisit a simpler time. And it feels like a place that gets bagged on as provincial should be better than others at revisiting and celebrating its past.
You're a kid again today. You're on the playground, bantering about tonight's Blazers game. You're knocking off school, and running the final few blocks home because it won't be long before tipoff. You're on the living room floor, posting up your little brother, telling him you're Walton.
Today, for a few hours, don't let yourself get weighed down by our country's financial crisis, and the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the regular American hassles of adult life. No job burdens. No neighbor issues. If only for one day, set it all down like it's a bag of bricks and be a kid again.
Your big worry: Cotton candy or Cracker Jack?
Memorial Coliseum is an old backyard tree house today. Climb up the ladder again. Duck beneath the door. Run your fingers over the railings, and remember what it was like to hang from them when your legs would dangle.
Stand, and holler if you're inside Memorial Coliseum. And if you're not, gather your own children around the radio just before tipoff, and look into their hopeful eyes and explain what it was like to be just like them so many years before.
When those beautiful trumpets sound, tell your children what it reminds you about. Because someday, I have no doubt that they'll gather their children and remember this team, with you.
Brandon Roy will be in uniform. So, too, will LaMarcus Aldridge, Steve Blake and Nic Batum. And it will be Nate McMillan, not Dr. Jack Ramsay, on the bench as coach.
But you know how the faces change, and how time rolls. And you understand the value in reconnecting with your past. You remember the thrilling victories, and the championship parade. But also, you remember what it was to start from scratch, and to rebuild.
You know the names, and dates. You remember where you were when they won it all, and when they blew a 15-point lead to the Lakers. You remember the butterflies, and the sting. And everything in between.
What I'm talking about now is Blazers history.
It's yours.
Not just today. Always.