So, this past season sucked. Any disagreements? There’s a special type of pain associated with watching something you love fail, a little bit at a time. Three major injuries to arguably the three best players on the team removed the last hope of respectability. The season was conceded in March, a lovable coach was fired, probably for his own good, and the “Youth Movement” was introduced. Darius Miles managed to extend the national view of Portland as home of the Jailblazers. In summary it sucked.

     What has been the response in Portland? For a start, everyone remotely connected to the Blazers has been blamed by someone, sometime. From history comes the specter of Bob Whitsitt and the expensive remains of the championship drive that fell one famous quarter short. Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells and J.R. Rider still feel the ire of fans. Zach Randolph is called fat, selfish and lazy. Even Sam Bowie has received the obligatory honorable mention, as if he chose to get injured. Most of all, it is management in the form of Steve Patterson and John Nash who are taking the brunt.

     More seriously for the Blazers are the thousands of people not still blaming anyone, but simply walking away. These are the people who think they deserve better. These are the people who think they have the right to receive a winning basketball team made up of shining stalwarts of the community simply for living in this beautiful city. After two entire seasons of declining performance and a series of extra-curricular blunders by players they’ve reached their breaking points, and they’re leaving.

     I have a message for these these “fans”. What Portland fans deserve is the same thing as any other NBA city.

The average record in the NBA is always .500. That’s what Portland fans deserve. There are thirty teams and sixteen playoff teams, Portland deserves to make the playoffs every other year. Eleven teams have won a championship, that leaves nineteen who haven’t. What have Portland fans received? A 54% winning record. A nineteen year long playoff appearance streak. An NBA Championship. Two top 50 players of all time and a top-ten all-time coach.

     Of the teams left competing for a championship all have had to struggle at some point. San Antonio only got Tim Duncan by being the worst team in the league. Detroit’s record between the Bad Boys and the present championship team is eminently forgettable. Phoenix were a horrible team just two years ago. Miami faced the indignity of falling out of the play-offs in the East with Alonzo Mourning’s illness.

     Losing happens in basketball. Rebuilding is a fact of the NBA. The truth is that Portland is simply lucky that this hasn’t happened before. Real fans of the Portland Trailblazers will passionately debate the best way to go and what should have been done. They will cheer their young guys and call out for a better team, in every sense of the word. These fans will know that when Portland rises again their joy will be greater for having gone through the tough times. Because do you know what you are if you feel entitled to a great team? Do you know what you are if you only watch a winning team, if you show up in the second quarter and talk on your cell-phone, if you don’t cheer on your team just as hard when they are losing? You’re a Laker fan.

-EnglandDan