Portland Has Forgiven Tonya Harding. But What About the Jail Blazers?

[Wizard Mentor]

Really interesting set of articles from different perspectives on the JailBlazer era.
Here's a snippet:

The professional basketball players on the Portland Trail Blazers in the early 2000s received at least as bad a rap as Harding. They even got a collective nickname: the Jail Blazers.


From approximately 1997 to 2005, fans abandoned the Blazers like the Rose Garden was on fire. The conventional wisdom was that the Blazers' roster consisted of nothing but criminals and troublemakers.

And, OK, there's some truth to that.

Qyntel Woods staged dogfights with his pit bulls. Bonzi Wells flipped the bird to fans. Wallace and Stoudamire were pulled over for getting high while speeding down the freeway in a Hummer. Derek Anderson abandoned his team in the middle of a game to get some McDonald's. Blazers threw towels and punches at each other; blood splattered the Rose Garden court. Cops caught Isaiah Rider smoking weed out of a soda can in Lake Oswego as if an NBA player couldn't afford to invest in some Swisher Sweets.

http://www.wweek.com/sports/2018/01...onya-harding-but-what-about-the-jail-blazers/

 

[dviss1]

"Cops caught Isaiah Rider smoking weed out of a soda can in Lake Oswego as if an NBA player couldn't afford to invest in some Swisher Sweets."

They weren't really smokin' blunts then but damn... WTF you doin' in the No Negro smokin' in your car?? He deserved a police interview for that shit.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

"Cops caught Isaiah Rider smoking weed out of a soda can in Lake Oswego as if an NBA player couldn't afford to invest in some Swisher Sweets."

They weren't really smokin' blunts then but damn... WTF you doin' in the No Negro smokin' in your car?? He deserved a police interview for that shit.

The articles didn't even mention the time when he was selling contraband cellphones... like he needed more $$$.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

For one thing, the scorn directed at those teams looks very different today. To be frank: Portland was a racist city with a small-town mentality that wasn't ready for that era's squad of young, big-city, black players. Many of the players have talked about that since leaving town—and Rider called Oregon point blank a "racist area" at the time, two decades before national magazines ran think pieces about it.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

But two things can be true at once. Portland can be a racist city with a problematic attitude toward black athletes, and Ruben Patterson can be a piece of shit. One narrative doesn't blot out the other.

 

[handiman]

Wait, we've forgiven Tonya because that trailer trash had a movie made about her? Her reputation was awful before Nancy.

Disclaimer: I haven't see the movie. Portland is so craving of national attention, though, it wouldn't surprise me if most people really have forgiven her because of it.