Roy said he was so charged up by the reception that he was ready to play their first game of the series against Houston that night.
And after spending three years rebuilding the team from an NBA-worst 21-61 record and working through hard times where few breaks seemed to fall in the franchise's favor, Roy said it was rewarding to see Rip City return to form.
"I've never seen anything like this before. It's unbelievable, man," Roy said. "We all wanted to be a part of the turnaround, but we never imagined it would be something like this. And then as it slowly began to turn, we could tell this city really gets crazy when the Blazers get good. And we see it now. It's unbelievable."
And this was just for making the playoffs.
Already fans were spending the night outside the Rose Quarter box office to snatch up the 1,000 available tickets for each of the first two playoff games, and spilled into the street to surround the Blazers' chartered bus in a sea of red, black and white.
If fans get this worked up for a playoff berth, Aldridge said, where does it go from here?
"I was just overwhelmed," Aldridge said. "If this is for the playoffs, a championship would be crazy."
