Buried in the back of Blazer media coverage last week was a possible player acquisition that may please the team’s longtime fans more than the future potential of Martell Webster and Jarret Jack. According to reports in The Oregonian and elsewhere, there is a distinct possibility that former Blazer Brian Grant will rejoin the team.

      As the rumors go, The Lakers are looking to cut Grant, and Portland could sorely use a backup power forward. Grant is still tenacious and a valuable player, but he’s also at a point in his career where he’s okay with coming off the bench. He would make a wonderful compliment to Zach Randolf and teach the younger forward to “play the right way”, as Larry Brown would say.

     And just as importantly, Grant is already loved by Blazer fans. During his previous tenure in Portland during the late 1990s, he emerged as the most popular player on the team. Grant appeared as a kind of working class hero, whose work ethic extended and quiet leadership extended not only a full 48 minutes, but into the community as well with numerous charitable efforts. Grant was arguably the only Blazer since the Clyde Drexler era whom Blazer fans have unconditionally embraced.

      It’s all too easy to let nostalgia cloud judgment about whether a deal like this should be made. Like the prospect of Terry Porter returning as coach, it’s dangerous because we want it to happen for reasons other than what necessarily makes the best basketball. But the reuniting of Grant with the Blazers just seems to feel right.

      Grant has said he was happiest here out of all the NBA stops he’s made ( Sacramento , Miami and Los Angeles along with Portland ). And therein lies much of his appeal. Lots of players more talented than Grant have come and gone during this Blazers era. Just at power forward alone, Rasheed Wallace, Zach Randolph, Jermaine O’Neal and Shareef Abdur-Rahim all had unquestionably more ability. But if there’s one thing Portland knows all too well, talent alone will not win you a championship.

      Grant was a character hero, and that’s something they could use right now to restore the ties between the franchise and the city. And if budding young Turks like Randolph , Telfair, Outlaw live up to their potential, what the Blazers will need most is a determined, unselfish role player. While he isn’t going to be the savior of the franchise, that’s not what Portland necessarily needs right now so much as somebody you can imagining carrying a lunch pail to work.

      So my question to you, Mr. Grant is:
Do you need a lift from the airport?

-Brian Libby

Talk about it on the BlazerBoard