Outside Perception

[Minstrel]

While I don't disagree with the position that having bad actors doesn't matter if the team is winning, I will point out that living in the city with bad actors is a lot different than living away from the city.

Not to me. My favourite baseball and football team are in the same area as I live and it doesn't matter to me when they have players who aren't good people. I wouldn't want to be their friends but their off-court/off-field problems are between them and their families/friends or law enforcement. My relationship with them exists solely in watching them play.

It got difficult supporting those guys (CTC and all), and once they started losing in the first round every year, people just got sick of their act.

Yeah, I realize it bothers a lot of people. Most fans have an emotional connection to their favourite sports team and for some/many, it bleeds over to the individual players. They want to like the people they root for. I understand it, it just isn't the case for me.

 

[barfo]

I will point out that living in the city with bad actors is a lot different than living away from the city.

Agreed. Having those guys partying over at my place all the time got old after a few years.

I dunno, some of you obviously see more of them than I do. I have yet to see a blazer anywhere other than the rose garden.

barfo

 

[Nikolokolus]

Image is nothing.
Thirst is everything.
Obey your thirst.

 

[PapaG]

Agreed. Having those guys partying over at my place all the time got old after a few years.

I dunno, some of you obviously see more of them than I do. I have yet to see a blazer anywhere other than the rose garden.

barfo

Ah, you're just jealous that I knew Roy was in town on Saturday, you tried to call me on it, yet I was right.

Seriously though, you've never seen a Blazer outside of the RG? You need to get out more, my man.

 

[PapaG]

Not to me. My favourite baseball and football team are in the same area as I live and it doesn't matter to me when they have players who aren't good people. I wouldn't want to be their friends but their off-court/off-field problems are between them and their families/friends or law enforcement. My relationship with them exists solely in watching them play.

[

Yeah, that's what I said.

Yeah, I realize it bothers a lot of people. Most fans have an emotional connection to their favourite sports team and for some/many, it bleeds over to the individual players. They want to like the people they root for. I understand it, it just isn't the case for me.

May I ask why you spend thousands of posts commenting on and producing a message board dedicated to a sports team that you don't have an emotional connection toward? Or did I misread your post, and you only have an emotional connection to the name on the front of the uniform, no matter what?

 

[barfo]

Ah, you're just jealous that I knew Roy was in town on Saturday, you tried to call me on it, yet I was right.

I didn't try to call you out on it. I used your observation to show he was in town Saturday, and the blog comment to show he was back in Seattle Sunday. Suggesting that either it went well, or went badly.

Seriously though, you've never seen a Blazer outside of the RG? You need to get out more, my man.

Maybe I just don't go where they go? Or maybe I just don't recognize them. Lots of tall black guys in this town.

barfo

 

[Minstrel]

May I ask why you spend thousands of posts commenting on and producing a message board dedicated to a sports team that you don't have an emotional connection toward?

I produce out of love for my fellow man (and woman). Ever the dedicated public servant (or community organizer, as it were).

And you're misreading my statement. I said "most fans have an emotional connection to their favourite sports team" (I am one of those "most") and "for some/many, it bleeds over to the individual players" (this is what doesn't apply to me).

So, I write so many posts because I really like A. basketball, B. the Blazers and C. talking to people.

 

[Shooter]

My favourite baseball and football team are in the same area as I live and it doesn't matter to me when they have players who aren't good people. I wouldn't want to be their friends but their off-court/off-field problems are between them and their families/friends or law enforcement. My relationship with them exists solely in watching them play.

So if you knew that Rasheed Wallace was guilty of rape or child molestation, it wouldn't bother you? You'd still be able to cheer him on and admire his 3-point shooting and sleep well at night? If you knew that Qyntel Woods was involved in dog fighting and abusing animals, you couldn't care less? And if Bonzi Wells was selling meth and crack cocaine to high school kids, you'd have no problem with that, and would be able to simply admire his graceful drives to the hoop?

Hmmm. Good for you, my friend. I couldn't do it, myself.

 

[Ed O]

So if you knew that Rasheed Wallace was guilty of rape or child molestation, it wouldn't bother you? You'd still be able to cheer him on and admire his 3-point shooting and sleep well at night? If you knew that Qyntel Woods was involved in dog fighting and abusing animals, you couldn't care less? And if Bonzi Wells was selling meth and crack cocaine to high school kids, you'd have no problem with that, and would be able to simply admire his graceful drives to the hoop?

Hmmm. Good for you, my friend. I couldn't do it, myself.

They would be in prison, right? I don't think that they'd be on the Blazers.

Again: your hypotheticals go beyond meaningful hypotheticals into fantasyland and are useless as far as I'm concerned.

Ed O.

 

[Shooter]

They would be in prison, right? I don't think that they'd be on the Blazers.

Shows how much you know. It's possible to know that a player is guilty of something without the general public or law enforcement knowing it. That's why I phrased the question the way I did. If any of us, as Blazer fans, knew that one of the team's players had been selling cocaine to high school kids (and had seen him doing it), wouldn't that rightly affect our opinion of that player?? This is the crux of the matter, and you're trying to avoid it with a technicality, as you often do.

Again: your hypotheticals go beyond meaningful hypotheticals into fantasyland and are useless as far as I'm concerned.

There's no fantasy in my argument. Many players are guilty of breaking the law, and still remain on NBA teams. How many players do we know who have been busted for smoking pot, or speeding, or abusing dogs, or trying to smuggle a gun onto an airplane, or getting into a fight at a bar?? The examples are endless. My point was simply to see how far someone like Minstrel is willing to go when he says that a player's personal, off-court life is of no interest to him.

 

[blue32]

Shows how much you know. It's possible to know that a player is guilty of something without the general public or law enforcement knowing it. That's why I phrased the question the way I did. If any of us, as Blazer fans, knew that one of the team's players had been selling cocaine to high school kids (and had seen him doing it), wouldn't that rightly affect our opinion of that player?? This is the crux of the matter, and you're trying to avoid it with a technicality, as you often do.


There's no fantasy in my argument. Many players are guilty of breaking the law, and still remain on NBA teams. How many players do we know who have been busted for smoking pot, or speeding, or abusing dogs, or trying to smuggle a gun onto an airplane, or getting into a fight at a bar?? The examples are endless. My point was simply to see how far someone like Minstrel is willing to go when he says that a player's personal, off-court life is of no interest to him.

just depends on how well that guy performs on the court, if he turns into a superstar, like Kobe, mostly everyone forgets, and doesn't care after a couple of years, regardless of the crime (to an extent).

 

[alex42083]

I'd prefer not to go back to the Jail Blazer era. Talk about a PR nightmare with players and coaches having to answer questions about so and so's off-the-court troubles all the time, which can affect the team's play on the court.

And I'm sure the team feels the same way after all of the sponsors it lost due to having a terrible image in the community, which they're still trying to recover from.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

I'd prefer not to go back to the Jail Blazer era. Talk about a PR nightmare with players and coaches having to answer questions about so and so's off-the-court troubles all the time, which can affect the team's play on the court.

And I'm sure the team feels the same way after all of the sponsors it lost due to having a terrible image in the community, which they're still trying to recover from.

That's a good point. Even if a particular fan doesn't care about image, the sponors do. And if the image is bad and that leads to less sponsorship money, that in turn could hurts the overall product put on the floor . .. which all fans are concerned about.

 

[Minstrel]

So if you knew that Rasheed Wallace was guilty of rape or child molestation, it wouldn't bother you? You'd still be able to cheer him on and admire his 3-point shooting and sleep well at night? If you knew that Qyntel Woods was involved in dog fighting and abusing animals, you couldn't care less? And if Bonzi Wells was selling meth and crack cocaine to high school kids, you'd have no problem with that, and would be able to simply admire his graceful drives to the hoop?

Yes, just as I can enjoy movies with actors who have committed crimes in the past, or buy products from a company who's CEO has done bad things, etc. While I have an emotional connection to the team that is absent with a movie or multinational, the players, CEOs and actors I have no emotional connection to. I wouldn't like them personally, in your examples, but I can still enjoy watching them play basketball. Allegations of crimes would make me want them to stand trial for those crimes, but wouldn't affect my viewing experience of them in basketball games.

 

[Ed O]

Shows how much you know. It's possible to know that a player is guilty of something without the general public or law enforcement knowing it. That's why I phrased the question the way I did. If any of us, as Blazer fans, knew that one of the team's players had been selling cocaine to high school kids (and had seen him doing it), wouldn't that rightly affect our opinion of that player?? This is the crux of the matter, and you're trying to avoid it with a technicality, as you often do.

Oh... If I personally knew? I would turn him in and help ensure that he went to prison.

I don't really understand why you have to make up ridiculous scenarios to try to prove why I'm wrong for not caring about how ESPN.com voters perceive the Blazers.

There's no fantasy in my argument. Many players are guilty of breaking the law, and still remain on NBA teams. How many players do we know who have been busted for smoking pot, or speeding, or abusing dogs, or trying to smuggle a gun onto an airplane, or getting into a fight at a bar?? The examples are endless. My point was simply to see how far someone like Minstrel is willing to go when he says that a player's personal, off-court life is of no interest to him.

Oh, no! Speeding!?! Getting into a fight at a bar?!?! Heavens to Betsy!

I have done both of those things in the last 18 months.

Smoking pot? It's done on a daily basis by people I consider friends. I don't do it, but don't consider it to be any big deal... although if someone gets arrested for it I have no problem with them being punished, either.

Dog abuse is bad. But not that big of a deal. If I knew a Blazers player did it, I'd turn him in and let the law sort things out. I wouldn't let it impact how I root for the Blazers, though.

Ed O.

 

[maxiep]

You my friend should be the governor of said states!

I tried, but my half-sister refused to marry me.