The Phoenix Suns came into the Moda Center last night, November 18, and straight up mooned the Portland Trail Blazers on national television, beating us 127-110, making the Blazer stats fall to 6-8 to start the year. Let’s not overreact, but… the defense was bad. The offense was baaaaad. It’s a bad sign when second round rookie Caleb Love’s 17 points and 32 minutes of hustle (he even dove for a loose ball while the Blazers were down 20 with around three minutes left in the game), is the best effort on the team.
After a pretty poor 1-4 road trip, Blazers fans held high hopes that the team would return to Portland fueled by hometown energy. And despite two big-time veteran rotation players, Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday both missing the game due to sickness and injury, the game didn’t start out terribly. The crowd was on their feet. First, fans booed trash talking NBA villain Dillion Brooks as he took early free throws (and later again when arguing a call)—a harsh homecoming for the former Oregon Ducks star. Then Love came out firing off the bench, making three first half three-pointers. Things truly erupted when Chinese-born rookie Yang Hansen checked into the game and delivered his best minutes yet as a Blazer, scoring four quick points in a second-quarter shift. The first half ended close at 64-61.
The bad really only came after halftime in the form of a truly back-breaking third quarter. The Suns, powered mostly by their backup point guard Collin Gillespie’s hot shooting from three, finishing tied for a team game high of 19-points. It was frustrating to witness Gillespie casually dribble into his fourth wide open three of the night with Yang standing at a good ten feet away in drop defensive coverage. The Blazers’ usual pace and defensive intensity just wasn’t possible without their veteran defensive stalwarts Grant and Holiday, to go along with the more chronically injured Matisse Thybulle and Blake Wesley.
Alas, there’s another game tonight.
What can we do when our faithful friends drop a stinker? We can remember what’s great about basketball—the “stupid things, the mood rings, the bracelets, and the beads“—the waxing nostalgic. A blowout is the perfect time to indulge in an age-old fan pastime of Remembering Some Guys™. Both in the nosebleeds 300 section and the petite-bourgeois 100 level seats, we asked Blazers fans wearing vintage (or just flat-out obscure) jerseys why they chose them for their game-day fit. This is to get at what’s truly worth remembering about a guy.
“I got to rep our guy from Northeast Portland. When I was a kid, [Damon Stoudamire] pulled up with a U-Haul full of shoes to Peninsula Park and gave every kid in the neighborhood a pair. I’ll never forget it.”
“In the ’90s I stepped away from the NBA for a little bit, but Brian Grant was one of the players that really brought me back into being a fan again. The headband, the locks… he was just an iconic hustle guy on that team that made it to the Western Conference Finals. After a game once, I wore the jersey at a McDonalds and his daughter saw me and pointed it out, it was a cool moment.”
“My uncle has always been a diehard Blazers fan,” Ashlyn says, “He gives me all his cool vintage Blazer stuff and I let [Sam] wear it. I’ve been a fan since I was a baby. My dad always tells me I went to my first game in a Rasheed Wallace onesie.”
“I know [Greg Oden’s] more famous for what he could have been because of the injuries, but my grandpa got this signed by the man himself. He went to a game with my dad right after my parents got married, and now he handed the jersey down to me.”
“I grew up watching basketball in Idaho and never had a team, but when I moved to Portland it was great getting to follow the Blazers. I like Clyde because his highlights really amaze me. He really went toe to toe with Jordan like nobody else.”
“This was my grandpa’s jersey that he passed down to me, I think he was pretty good, but I never got to watch him. My basketball team actually got to play in the Moda Center today, Scappoose vs St. Helens!”
“I got this because I’m a big Blazers fan and wanted something vintage. I found it at the basketball shop Back to the Basket, which I really love.”
