Token Weekly Blazers Post: LA Beat

Another week gone and another two cards from the 50-ct. box have been scanned. Two more notches in the win column, with a disappointing loss to Dallas sandwiched between, snapping the Blazers home winning streak.

The big stories of the week were the huge victory over the Lakers Monday, the hard flagrant foul that sent Rudy Fernandez to the inactive list, and Greg Oden's continued absence. The Blazers annihilated the Lakers, but late in the 3rd quarter Trevor Ariza sent Rudy flailing to the ground in a clip that was seen all over the sports TV highlight shows and YouTube. I dont' feel like linking it, but I'm sure it won't be hard to find. It was Portland's 7th straight home victory over the Lakers, who have only won 6 games in the Rose Garden since it opened in 1995. Meanwhile, Oden is supposed to miss another week and Martell Webster, previously declared out for the season, is now "back in April"... whatever that means. Last night the Blazers rebounded from the Dallas loss to beat the New Jersey Nets, who are a lot worse than they should be with some of the talent (Devin Harris, Vince Carter, Brook Lopez) that they have. Portland made 39 of 45 (!) free throws in the game.

About the cards:

• Hmm, what to say about Danny Young... He almost made a game-winning half court shot in the 1990 NBA Finals. It was after the buzzer, however. They would have reviewed it these days, at least. Plus, I believe that was right before they implemented the tenths-of-a-second timekeeping, so who knows how much time really would have been on the clock in this day and age. The 1991-92 Fleer design doesn't really hold up well. I don't see how using nearly a third of the card space for border is good.
• The Stadium Club Drexler card came out in Drexler's final season as a Blazer, which is sad. I do like how the gold foil swoosh thing runs right into the Blazer logo on Drexler's shorts, though.

Bonus: I warned you there would be three bonuses if the Blazers beat the Lakers. These cards came courtesy of Eric from The Pettitte Pursuit. He sent me yet another box of Cardinals cards and threw in a few Blazers. The Sergio Rodriguez card is my first of his. I would like to get a Blazer card of each player on the current team before the season is over. I doubt there are Shavlik Randolph or Michael Ruffin Blazers cards, though, so I'll have to settle for what I get. (Bring back Franz bread cards!) For Brian, there's a card of Cliff Robinson, this time with the red spandex instead of the black. And then there's Clyde, soaring above the Portland skyline, circa 1993. Great stuff.

Make sure you check out the Hoops contest below. You can win free basketball and baseball cards.

TWBP: Home Court Advantage

Home, sweet home. The Blazers finally got to play a string of home games this past week and responded by going 3-0. Granted, the competition wasn't always strong, but Portland actually squeaked by a team they were supposed to blow out (Sacramento) and then obliterated Miami (by 38) and solidly beat New Orleans. The win over the Hornets was the most satisfying win of the week, in a close game that looked like it could easily go either way until Portland went on a 17-0 run that Chris Paul and the gang couldn't hang with.

There is plenty of talk about what the Blazers could do in the trade market, but I am having so much fun watching this team that I really don't understand how a trade, realistically speaking, could improve this team at all. Martell Webster is due back from a preseason injury in a week now, and it's already questionable how they're going to fit him into the rotation.


About the cards:

• Arvydas Sabonis is my second favorite Blazers of all-time. Stupid Cold War politics stood in the way of him coming to the NBA for a long time, and it also prevented Portland from winning several championships in the early 90s. Yes, I said several, and I mean it. He was drafted clear back in 1986, but is seen here on one of his "rookie cards" nearly 10 years later, with a bad back and two bad knees. Still, I loved watching him play, and he was ahead of his time in that he came to the league just before the time when European talent was being imported and appreciated en masse. He also came along too late, as he was nowhere near the player that he was when he was drafted. If you ever get a chance to, watch some highlights of the 1988 Olympics when his Soviet Union team won the gold medal and you'll see what I'm talking about.
• I don't remember a lot about Danny Young aside from his amazing half-court shot in the 1990 NBA Finals that was released just a fraction of a second after the buzzer and ultimately did not count. It could have won the game for the Blazers and shifted momentum in the series. (P.S. I hate Bill Laimbeer.) Speaking of "ahead of the time", the inaugural Skybox set design was crazy at the time, and I still don't think we're quite ready for it.
• I really don't have any fond memories of Tracy Murray. He came from a school I strongly dislike (UCLA), had a stupid haircut (in a time where a lot of haircuts were stupid, but somehow awesome) and did not play any defense whatsoever. He actually played his final NBA games as a Blazers, making the opening night roster in the 2003-04 season as a potential 3-point specialist but not lasting more than a handful of games. This Stadium Club set apparently represented a shift in design from a classy, high-end look to a glossy, IN YOUR FACE mid-90s approach that everything from this era seemed to have.
  

Bonus: This 1978-79 card was part of a 4-card lot of Blazers from this set that I won from eBay years ago and forgot to throw into my Blazers binder. Luke is now an assistant coach for the Blazers and was stricken with pneumonia recently. I only got to see him play in his brief return the Blazers in the late 80's as a backup big man, and on videotape, of course. It'll be nice to see him back on the bench, glaring at everyone again.