Trail Post - A Portland Trail Blazers Blog

Us young Blazer fans have heard the stories since we were born.  The older among us can actually remember every damn incident against that horrible rival.  No, I’m not talking about the Lakers.  I’m not talking about the Jazz.  I’m definitely not talking about the Sonics.  It’s knees everywhere, and even more specifically - our knees.

It’s the knee of Sam Bowie that turned Portland into a punchline in the NBA’s cruelest joke.  The knee of Sabas hobbled our favorite geriatric big man.  Then there’s the recent knee issues.  The knee of Brandon Roy sidelining him for a brief period, a constant jabbing in the side of the collective fan base compared to the knee of Greg Oden, which was like a screwdriver in the calf for Portland.

The true mark of knee hatred isn’t getting hurt at inopportune times, though.  It’s the fact that they recover, too.  I was tempted to put the knee of Darius Miles on that previous list, and would have done it a week ago.  The knee of Darius Miles grounded one of the better high flyers in the league, and made him a drag on our cap and our roster (and apparently he was carrying some sort of contagion, as I distinctly remember articles and board posts about his potentially “infecting” young players, as if each of his headband slaps would release spores that make players go to strip clubs and hide guns in pillows).  Now his knee is taking the revenge that no knee has ever taken.  It got better.  It lied to the doctor to get off the roster, and then groveled in front of Danny Ainge to spite the Blazers.  Take a second to think of what a knee groveling would look like, if you please.  Now it’s signed, and we’re worried.  Damn knees.

Robert - So, why do you hate me so much?

Robert’s knee - It’s not anything personal, honestly.

R - How can this not be personal, I depend on you, I work with you, we’ve lived together since the 80s!  Reagan was in office!

RK - You think I don’t know that?  It’s difficult stabbing your benefactor in the back.  The reason is purely geographic.

R - Geographic, how?  Like geography?  Do you and other knees get together and try to map the rivers of Mongolia?

RK - *annoyed* No.  We dislike Portland.  It’s the moisture!  It makes us creaky.

R - Creaky?  That’s not much of a reason, you know.  Portland is regarded as one of the most healthy cities in the world.

RK - Okay, okay, okay.  That’s not the real reason. *motions me closer*

R - What is it?

RK - We just don’t like you!  Is it wrong to have a vast international conspiracy that stretches back decades in order to screw over one small market franchise?

R - Umm…

RK - That’s rhetorical.

R - Well, at least having unending, unprovoked anger from one of your most important joints is still better than being a Laker fan.

RK - You said it, brother.  Excuse me, I gotta go.  *ACL explodes*

R - Why?

“Thursday morning, Brandon Roy went in for arthroscopic surgery on his knee.”

There it is.   Those damn words.  Certain ones just flare up in day-glo when you read a news story.  Roy.  Surgery.  Knee.  Damn.

I think I took the wrong track when I used pessimism to downplay the expectations of the season.  Real life is much worse.  This knee issue was the one brought up by Steven A. Smith on draft night two years ago, saying it was a reason why Roy wasn’t taken higher even though he was the most NBA-ready player in that draft.  It’s the reason a year ago when Bill Simmons ranked Roy surprisingly low.  Now they’ve just been proven right.

We dodged a bullet this time; the surgery was minor and it was during the right time - well into the offseason and still before training camp.  Still, it gives the sadness mongers out there something to hang onto.  The ones that will say, the Blazers won’t be anything, they’re only one bad jump away from last place.

I say these people need a hobby.

The team is far too well-constructed and the talent overload that some are predicting to be the undoing of the team finds its greatest use in situations like that.  The fact that if we lost an all star for a bit of time, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for us shows the cohesiveness of the team, the coach, and the front office.  The players know work, and they can step in and do whatever job is needed.

Still, I take this kick in the seeds as a little nicer than recent ones.  Last year’s DDR fiasco had me doubled over.  The saga over Paul Allen potentially selling the team two years ago was a perpetual vice grip on them.  This one was just a love tap.

I think that’s how you know that you have arrived in the NBA - even getting hit in the nuts doesn’t seem so bad.