Trail Post - A Portland Trail Blazers Blog

The second Media Day couldn’t have been more different than the first. More people, more chaos as everyone shuffled between players trying to get any quote they could, more interviews, just more of everything. Cameras, photographers, reporters everywhere. I also had some help today, in the form of fellow Portland Monthly intern Tyler, and photo intern Rose for a slideshow piece about this whole event (days 1 and 2) I’ll write on that site too, later this week. As you may know, I’m not what you would call an established journalist. When John Hollinger steals my seat, I just am awestruck; it’s like Dave Chappelle asking me for a lighter.

Early impressions:

Brandon Roy is professional.  In all senses of the word.  He knows how to work the press, but in a very subtle way.  He’s saying the same thing as everyone else (this year is going to be good, we’re aiming for the division title, I can’t wait to start) but he’s makes it profound.  The first question this blog ever asked to the MVP candidate was, “How do you think the lost weight will change your game this year?”  He responded: “It won’t change much, but I don’t think I’ll be defending many small forwards any more - those dudes are big.”

LaMarcus brought some sincerity about his contract status. It didn’t sound like he was venting, trying to inflate his value, he just sounded genuinely surprised and a little hurt but the whole situation. He said, “I don’t know what I did wrong. I didn’t think it would take this long, I can’t say I’m happy about it.” Then he brought up a tidbit that apparently he was the last guy off last year’s All Star team, behind David West. Injustice, seriously.

Martell Webster was a guy I’ve been wanting to speak with for a while. Any long-time followers of the blog know that I was advocating for Webster, desperately hoping he’d come back throughout last year, and I finally got to ask him the question you’ve all been waiting for: “Are you getting tired of the ‘How’s the foot?’ questions?” Martell (in his new 23 jersey, which somehow makes him look older and more mature) said that he surprisingly doesn’t get it that much. Then we went on about his summer (Seattle and Bend), talked about the Seahawks game on Sunday (Olindo Mare is terrible), how Seattle is feeling more than a year after losing the Sonics (”It’s like losing your dog”), how his game changed after the injury (a little more conservative), starting status (doesn’t care about starting the game, just wants to be in at the end), and if he still has the jumper (”Oh yeah,” with a big smile). Then I asked him what the ceiling for this team is. “All the way,” said Webster. “We’ve set goals every year and we’ve met them. Are we capable of winning it this year? Yes. Will it be difficult? Yes.” It’s nice to hear a Blazer talk about something more than outpacing the Nuggets. It looks to me like we have a dark horse championship contender, and it’s good to know some of the team knows it.

After listening to 95.5 after Media Day, it seemed like the biggest story there was ODEN SMILE WATCH 09. As if the best measure of his happiness and his performance in this upcoming season was the number of times he smiled during a press event. Anyway, the Blazers Edge Twitter has some of the best Oden quotes of the day (Love Joel to death, but I want that job). When I caught up to him later, we spoke about how he tried to improve his footwork on defense over the summer with Bill Bayno. I made this illustration in my notes.

The X’s are people driving the lane, and the O is Oden. The drill goes, people drive the lane, and Oden has to cover, then rotate, after the ball is passed, to block the shot as it goes up. He repeats it 16 times. And as my contribution to ODEN SMILE WATCH 09: yes, he smiled during the interview. Dude is ready, and it has nothing to do with the number of times he smiled. He also said “thank you, sir” afterward, which is amazingly polite, especially considering I’m only two years older than him. Points for class, Greg. Points for class.

A quick apology to all of you, I did not get a chance to speak with Rudy at all. He was a fantasma. He was out in the room for a total of three minutes. I stepped over to speak to Batum, and he was gone.

Speaking of, Batum is practically fluent in English. His English is better than my French. For someone with a French (OK, Romance Languages) degree, that is depressing. He was able to joke, and basically talked about how the starting spot is his to lose. I asked if the summer tired him out for this season, but he just said that he’s resting a little more right now, but he’ll be ready. When I asked if Rudy has said anything about the game they had this summer, Nicolas responded that there’s been “no trash talk from Rudy.” At one point during all of this Mike Rice showed up¹ and said, “SPEAK ENGLISH,” and took off. I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who loves a job the way Rice loves his.

Batum before the Rice ambush. Photo by Rose Nomura

Under I didn’t say much, I didn’t hear them too much file, we have Joel Przybilla, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw, and Jerryd Bayless. Przybilla seemed like he was in a bad mood until he hit the main press table where he was gregarious, and happy to play the role of the ol’ vet. Yes, he mentioned how nice it is to have someone over 25 on the team. Bayless was terse, but I learned later that that’s just his way. Blake was quiet. Travis was goofy and charming, with his widow’s peak afro. Seriously, can this season consist of a new unexpected hair style from Trav every month? Who wouldn’t want to see Travis with a Ice Cube-NWA days jheri curl?

Udoka was happy to be back, saying everything you could possibly want him to say. That he doesn’t expect a lot of playing time, would love to make the team, be a good mentor to the young guys. Choice quote was “They’re like my baby brothers” when talking about Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Surreal experience of the day was sitting at a table with Juwan Howard. Dude was on my Sprite bottles growing up. The way he spoke, he knew what he was here for: to bring veteran leadership, even if that means almost no playing time. He made me look stupid (mostly because I asked a stupid question), which was a great honor. He summed it up with this: “Coaches have an open-door policy, well so do I. If any teammates want to come soak up info like a sponge from me, I’m there.”

Andre Miller closed out the day with a dose of honesty, as well. “We’ve still got a long way to go,” he said. “There’s no chemistry [for me with them] yet. We haven’t played together yet.” That’s the point of training camp, I suppose.

¹ To be honest, I don’t remember exactly when it happened. It could have been during the end of the interview Batum had before me, or it could have been during my interview. All I know is that I was there. I don’t believe the lack of time frame diminishes this story any.

Today is Media Day part two.

After Wednesday’s eye-opening experience, I expect to be completely surprised yet again, as the word I’ve heard from everyone I’ve spoken to is that when the players show up, Media Day becomes a whole different animal. I am expecting the media turnout to be double what it was on Wednesday. Bear in mind that I have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about.

Your blogger will go after a few different players with some pretty cake questions. I expect to corner Nicolas Batum and work out that Romance Language degree I got (Go Ducks!) and then go after Rudy and flounder (I was the guy who went French and Italian). Of course, Juwan Howard and Andre Miller are near the top of my list, but I imagine they will get mobbed immediately. I hope Ime Udoka will be there, as there are quite a few questions for him. However, I’ve given up all hope of talking to Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge; they’re going to get mobbed by people much more important than me. My only guarantee is that there won’t be any “Gosh, these guys are tall” comments tomorrow.

Will I attempt to step on Martell Webster’s foot as a joke? Yes, yes I will.

Nothing new really happened there. As you may know, it was my first time as a “serious” media member at a sports event, which feels like a cross between the first day of school and losing your virginity. It’s horribly awkward, you definitely want to try it again, and the cookies at the end are delicious.

Coming from the world of fan blogdom (and what else is this blog?), I was stunned to see these people I’ve written thousands of words on. Kevin Pritchard came up first, and simply stated things we already knew, along with a few other wrinkles. Our goal is to win the division, continue making progress, and Andre Miller’s nickname is “The Director.” He spoke about Miller as not only making the team better on offense, but also on defense. During this, I was just nodding my head. Of course Miller makes us better. At that moment I would have traded Chris Paul and LeBron James for Andre Miller. Later, I remembered that Miller is a terrible defender and there are still tons of chemistry question that won’t get answered until the season. I got Pritch-slapped.

Pritchard prepares for the P-slap.

Next, the assistant coaches arrived and just hung out. Your correspondent was not able to speak to them, because they were mostly taken by television reporters and the intrepid dudes from Oregon Sports Live. I hung back awkwardly, sending out tweets, and occasionally speaking with Ben from Blazersedge (as if that really needed a link). Biggest highlight was getting to hear Dwight Jaynes disparage the Ducks.

Nate McMillan came out next for about ten minutes. He didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t already know. We’ve had Nate on board as a coach for years, we know his philosophy. He wants his guys to earn their spots, and the starting lineup will be solidified right before opening day. Then there were the other quotes about how we have to be even better this year. After about ten minutes, Nate left.

I went over and tried the free cookies they had at the catering station. White chocolate and macadamia nuts with coconut shreds throughout. Seriously, can cookies that taste this good be legal?

Yes, it’s strange to think it’s been so long since I’ve I updated this, after the loyal following I built up through post after post during the season. Well, like the Blazers, I spent the summer doing some cross-training. Where Brandon Roy dropped like 50 pounds because he spent every day in the pool, I expanded my writing vocab a little bit through work with Portland Monthly. I hobnobbed with Daniel Baldwin and Dave Chappelle. Honest. Check out my work.

Well, now I’m going to cover the Blazers today for Media Day with Portland Monthly. You will get my updates throughout the day on Twitter (follow @Runyon). Because I’m there with the magazine, they’re getting first dibs at pictures I take (which I doubt they will want because they have pros that’ll be holding more than a point-and-click), and first dibs on anything that remotely sounds like journalism. Now that we’re all up to speed on what your humble blogger has been up to this summer, who wants to help? Is it a good idea if I ask Nate if he reads the internet’s fifth most popular non-team-sanctioned Blazer blog? Would he grumble at me and convince me to do windsprints? Possible. Will I ask Larry Miller if he appreciated his valentine? Almost definitely not.

The point is: you have questions for the higher ups (today is coaches and staff, Monday is players), I can get answers. Throw ‘em my way.