Oct
16
Positive Summers for Both Teams Hit with Recent Disappointments
Two years to the day that the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in team history (an 89-84 loss to the Chicago Bulls), the NBA opened its doors to two other franchises on this day in basketball in 1970. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated its fellow newbie, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-112 on October 16th approximately 37 years ago.
Entering the 2007-2008 NBA season, the Blazers and the Cavaliers seemingly should be in good spirits but are not. After reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, the Cleveland Cavaliers were miserable last June against the San Antonio Spurs, losing in four forgettable games.
While the team is currently playing exhibition games in Shangai and Portuguese territory Macau, its star Lebron James is apparently not happy with the organization, which has failed to sign starting shooting guard Sasha Pavlovic and backup big man Anderson Varejao. Could the Cavs inability to improve after the dismal Finals appearance ultimately be laying the foundation for James to opt out of his contract and go to a bigger market after the 2010-2011 season?
Twenty-three years later after selecting Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, the Trail Blazers finally seemed to have fate on its side in May when the organization landed the first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft lottery. A month later, the Blazers did the right thing by taking Ohio State big man Greg Oden ahead of fellow freshman phenom Kevin Durant of Texas. Big men of Oden’s ability come along once every 10-15 years.
While Rip City was jacked up for the arrival of Oden, the excitement quickly turned to anxiety last month. A checkup on Oden’s knee revealed damaged that needed to be fixed by microfracture surgery. Oden will thus miss most likely all of his rookie campaign, and pessimists have already begun the premature comparisons of Oden to Bowie, whose career was marred by knee injuries.
Oden’s loss is certainly a setback at this point; yet the Blazers still have a lot of young talent to watch this year. Portland has finally avoided the Jail Blazers stigma of earlier this decade and instituted a youth movement that fans should be excited about, as Hoops 4 the Soul’s upcoming season preview on the Blazers reveals.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
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Two years to the day that the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in team history (an 89-84 loss to the Chicago Bulls), the NBA opened its doors to two other franchises on this day in basketball in 1970. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated its fellow newbie, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-112 on October 16th approximately 37 years ago.
