PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS IMPROVE MEMORY

Memory problems? Let the Portland Trail Blazers help.

This Easter a sign kept popping up:

“At my age I can hide my own eggs and half an hour later won’t know where they are.”

Ha. Ha. Ha?

What’s so funny? I forget.

Except memory loss is no laughing matter.

You want to remember important things, but they’re slipping away every day.

What happens tomorrow without help?

Enlist the Portland Trail Blazers.

Sports fans obsess over stats and wins and losses.

Statistics explain why you win, why you lose. Most of the time it’s enough.

Look at sports history for proof.

You’ll find who won, who lost, but not much else at first.

Dig deeper and you’ll find the why and what for of a season.

Personal problems, injury, the list of reasons can go on and on, but who really cares?

Why didn’t the Portland Trail Blazers show up the year after winning it all in 1977?

Fans know it was Bill Walton’s foot. That’s what kicked the Blazer dynasty in waiting to the curb.

That’s a memory no one wants, but it still helps the memory impaired.

What helps more is tracking former Blazers on other NBA teams.

Watch a Spurs game today and see Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge work their roundball magic.

Before getting into the rant about why Portland let them go, just know they are happy winning in San Antonio.

Get to the memory part, the important part.

There’s LA in his home state of Texas. He played his college ball for University of Texas, the same place All-World Kevin Durant played. Just not at the same time.

What’s the Portland Trail Blazers connection

In an odd twist of fate, Durant from Texas went to the Seattle Supersonics in the draft, an important thing to remember.

The Sonics, owned by Starbucks honcho Howard Schultz, moved to Oklahoma City in a shady deal. The move ruined the best NW rivalry.

Putting a Texas star in Oklahoma sounds risky, but not in the money league.

Portland saw risk in drafting a long skinny guy who couldn’t bench press the league minimum 185 lbs.

Fragile was the word.

Instead the Blazers got Ohio State’s Greg Oden, a franchise big man.

Too many comparisons of Kentucky’s Sam Bowie over North Carolina’s Michael Jordan later, Kevin Durant is a super star like Jordan and Oden’s career didn’t match even Bowie.

See how this works?

Track players by college, then their teams after Portland.

Bill Walton of UCLA won another title in Boston with Larry Bird who played with Danny Ainge out of North Eugene and BYU.

Ainge came to Portland later and left. After his playing days he took over as general manager and President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics.

Indiana State’s Larry Bird was set for the job but got run out of town by college coach Rick Pitino who nearly ruined the franchise.

Bird took over the Indiana Pacers. You can see him in the stands scowling during this years playoff series against Cleveland.

Coaching the Pacers is former Sonic and Blazer leader Nate McMillan.

The Indiana / Portland Trail Blazers connection

The Blazers once drafted long skinny Jermaine O’Neal right out of high school, but didn’t have the patience for him to develop.

So they traded this under-achiever to Indy where it grew into the role of heart breaker.

From wiki:

In his eight seasons with the club, he was voted an NBA All-Star six times, made the All-NBA teams three times, and was voted the NBA Most Improved Player in the 2001–02 season. He also helped Indiana reach the NBA Playoffs six times, including the Conference Finals in the 2003–04 season.

If Portland had waited long enough Jermaine would have done it here?

Human memory is often clouded by hope. Facts matter, but hope is eternal.

If you feel like your brain may be going on the fritz, use the NBA Memory Challenge for care and comfort.

Just don’t get upset all over again by the results.