Bye, Bye, Brandon Credit: Getty Images
Bye, Bye, Brandon

Sorry for not posting this earlier, I’ve had a difficult morning.

News is leaking out that Brandon Roy, the very face of the Portland Trail Blazers franchise, is retiring effective immediately.

This is a shocking (SHOCKING!) decision, especially since the Blazers front office went on record this past Monday stating their deep faith in the former three-time All-Star and his damaged knees. Earlier this week, the Blazers hyped up Roy’s return to form and how he’s ready to reclaim his role as a starter and NBA star. Sadly, the full extent of Roy’s career-killing knee injury has never really been known (until now), but to snuff out such a marvelous career at the age of 27, it’s clear that Roy’s knees were damaged beyond repair.

For those more concerned with the future of the franchise, Roy’s retirement means his salary will be removed from the Blazers’ cap at the end of this season. Considering their upcoming crop of free agents (Camby, Oden, Felton, etc.), Portland might be set to be huge buyers in next season’s free agent market.

But back to the matter at hand, this is truly a dark day here in Rip City. Roy’s beaming charisma, last second heroics, and unparalleled leadership helped resurrect the Blazers franchise. Much of the team’s success (both on the court and in fan attendance) from the past few years should be credited to Roy, and his presence will be sorely missed inside the Rose Garden.

Ezra Ace Caraeff is the former Music Editor for the Mercury, and spent nearly a third of his life working at the paper. More importantly, he is the owner of Olive, the Mercury’s unofficial office dog....

20 replies on “Breaking: Brandon Roy to Retire”

  4. Not only is Oden NOT gonna come back a badass, but the chances he comes back as even a contributing ROLE PLAYER seems tiny to me. And it’s not just health issues, either. This dude hasn’t played any sort of significant minutes since he left Ohio State. I’m not so much worried about whether he can withstand a schedule that will put even more strain on his body in 66 games than a regular 82 game schedule would – I’m worried that the guy has spent more time getting paid to NOT play basketball than he’s played highly-competitive basketball in his WHOLE LIFE. 3 years of High School ball, 1 year of college – and that’s it. There are AAU ballers with more experience and savvy at this point.

  8. I believe that the return of the Vanilla Gorilla IS being discussed in the Portland front office – such as it is.

    Then again, these are the same decisionmakers who didn’t want to amnesty Brandon Roy because they thought he could compete for the starting job again. Apparently without asking Brandon if he had any knees.

    I swear to God 2/3rds of the NBA makes decisions based on the season simulator in NBA 2k11.

  12. Very sad, unbelievable news. But the Blazers still have a pretty great roster. And LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE, who decided to become great last year when faced with my constant mockery.

  13. Hollow knees or not, he’s still better than half the NBA guards. Hard to believe he’s fully resigned to never, ever playing again.

    Sorry about the OG break-in. I swear I saw Sean Marks skulking about N. Killi on my bike ride in today…..

  16. @TSW: The word on the twitters and internets is that Roy had two separate medical evaluations this week, and both doctors told him yesterday that he had to stop playing or else he most likely wouldn’t be walking in a decade. For a guy under 30, with two young kids, and staring at the rest of his life, that was probably the deal breaker news.

  18. Ok, Fatboy, after seeing Greg Oden on the sidewalk downtown just now, I’ll say that he’s looking very, um, whatever the opposite of spry is.

  19. You must have seen him walking either to, or from, his latest medical exam that just declared him unfit to play for the rest of the 2011-2012 season.

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