Token Weekly Blazers Post: Rejuvenation

The Blazers came away refreshed and rejuvenated after the All-Star break, and responded with a short 2-0 week with wins over Memphis and Atlanta. The Memphis game marked Darius Miles' return to the Rose Garden for the first time since his Blazers exodus. It probably would have been hyped a great deal more, but the Miles story is already becoming old news. Hopefully Miles can regain some of what he was building towards with Portland before his knee injury and subsequent microfracture surgery.

Steve Blake returned to the team this week and seemed to step right back into the offense like he was never gone, which is a good thing. However, with Blake return came the news that Greg Oden would miss a few games with a chip fracture in his "other" knee - not the one that had the microfracture surgery. Supposedly it's not a serious injury, but with the Blazers luck with injuries this year, I've been a bit concerned. Martell Webster, last year's starting small forward, is now lost for the season after playing 1 preseason game and 5 minutes of a regular season game.

About the cards:

• The heavenly Clyde Drexler card is from a subset called ProVisions in the 1992-93 set. I thought this set worked a lot better in baseball as an insert set.
• Damon Stoudamire joined the Grizzlies coaching staff as an assistant this month. I've never been a huge fan of his, going back to his high school days, but it's nice to see ex-Blazers in the coaching ranks.
  

Bonus: Here's a Jarrett Jack Bowman card I picked up yesterday in a 10 cent box at a local hobby shop. I've heard some complaints about this design, but I kinda like it. As for Jarrett, he's started in about half of the games this season for Indiana and his numbers have been pretty much in line with his career marks.

Token Weekly Blazers Post: Ouch!

Brandon Roy has been out with an injured hamstring. Suddenly, everything up is down and vice versa. The Blazers beat a team they had no business beating (Boston) and then lost to a team they should have handled given a decent lead and a Tyson Chandler ejection. What's going on with the Celtics right now, anyway? Boston has lost 4 of its last 6 after an amazing 27-2 start. The Blazers can't wait for Roy to come back, as putting Rudy Fernandez (vote him!) into the starting lineup has created a bit of a scoring void in the second unit.

About the card:

• You can't go wrong with the goggles and the workman attitude Buck Williams brought to the court. Hoops kind of recycled the 1991-92 design with the set the following year and made it slightly better, but not a lot better.
  

Bonus: This Damon Stoudamire Fleer Authentix card was part of the 12 Days giveaway I received from TribeCards. There were 12 Blazers cards in all, none of which I owned. This is similar to another Authentix card I posted about awhile back. Cards with perforations are pretty intriguing to me for some reason.

Opening Night

It's opening night in the NBA. Baseball is just going to have to step aside. Oh, that's right, it already is.

This beauty up above is a Damon Stoudamire Starting Lineup, unopened, still in its case! Remember when all the toy stores would have these hanging on the racks, with endless amounts of Mark Langstons and Chris Mullins because all the good players were already picked through? This Stoudamire figure was actually a gift purchased for me at a state fair of all places. And the Huskies jersey? Apparently it's a nod to the Toronto Huskies, though I'm not sure if the Raptors ever wore these or if it was all Kenner's idea.

Don't worry, I won't have a basketball post every day the Blazers play. That is, of course, unless they go 82-0.