NBA PLAYERS RETURN TO OREGON ROOTS

via www.csnnw.com

Would the Blazers be better with local NBA players on the roster?

Sometimes it works out when the guys come back home to play, sometimes not, but who wouldn’t want Klay Thompson and Kevin Love on the Blazers? Minnesota and Cleveland see Love close up. Oakland gets their fair share of Klay.

In Portland they’d be the K-Line pulling down something around $36 million for the two, but let’s not talk about money. We’re sports fans, not accountants, and the money never comes into play for us, just the wins and losses.

Could Portland get out of the second round with Lillard and Klay? With Love on the prowl? That’s like asking if it might rain here, or if a tree could grow here?

High profile players returning to Oregon roots seems like a good idea for fans, but the pressure to be great every night is too wearing.

Danny Ainge made a return to Portland to take the team up, up, and away to the next title in Puddle Town. He showed up as a thirty one year old player with years of title runs with the Celtics.

As Rick Pitino reminded Boston fans as he ruined that team, “Larry Bird isn’t walking through that door,” Larry Bird didn’t walk through any Portland doors either. But Danny Ainge did.

Then he walked out the same door on his way back to Boston where he put a championship team together as President of the Celtics. Did he miss the same gig in Portland, or wasn’t he good enough to run the show here?

Call it a swing and a miss for the Moda Center brain trust.

Keeping it apples to apples, Damon Stoudamire came to Portland in his prime, leaving at the same age as Danny Ainge when he got here. His eight years as a Blazer highlighted the problems of playing in front of the home crowd.

Ainge and Stoudamire both show there’s no magic bullet, no special powers, that coming home delivers. What they do show is the emotional side of the game. Show up and produce, score and defend, be a good citizen and role model.

In the era of Klay Thompson and Kevin Love it seems silly to remind players of their social responsibilities, which isn’t to say today’s NBA players don’t get lit and party like rock stars. If they do, we’re not hearing about it.

Just put your best foot forward, and drain forty one points like Klay dropped on OKC last night, and the love will follow.

If they did come to Portland, Lake Oswego is ready to welcome them back.