Sherman Alexie on his Blazer experience

[Fez Hammersticks]

1. The Rose Garden to Key Arena, in terms of physical beauty, is Heidi Klum to Ernest Borgnine.
2. Somebody said there were great corn dogs somewhere. Could not find the corn dogs. Am upset by that. Was hoping they’d be as good as the corn dogs from that little cart in Disneyland.
3. That said, the variety of food choices was astonishing for a Sonics fan. You mean, I don’t have to eat fish and chips again?
4. The crowd in the fourth quarter was loud and excited. It was maybe 60-70% playoff atmosphere and it was just a November game against Minnesota.
5. There are far more people wearing Blazers jerseys than the Sonics fans ever did.
6. I never thought it would happen, but yes, there is an NBA arena that is even paler than Key Arena. Wow, there is a distinct absence of melanin in Rose Garden.
7. And people are much more casually dressed than at Sonics games.
8 Which leads me to remark at the wonderful absence of overdressed jerks in the first five rows who spent the whole game walking back and forth like models from their great seats to some secret club in the bowels of the Key.
9. HARDLY ANYBODY LEFT THE GAME EARLY! At the Key, those first five rows usually started emptying at the four minute mark, which led me to dream of an NBA rule wherein you had to take a basketball knowledge quiz in order to sit in the first five rows.
10. I was in good seats and never once had to hear anybody inaccurately explain NBA rules to a seatmate. I lost track of the number of times I heard somebody in the Key ask, “What’s illegal defense?”
11. Can you believe that the Wolves wanted Foye more than Roy?
12. Telfair is in the top 1% of selfish players I have ever seen.
13. Sergio R has a bad case of what we Sonics fans called “the Shammonds,” named after Shammond Williams, who was addicted to dribbling and never met a defensive trap he would not drive into.
14. As I watched Przybilla play the post, I found myself thinking, “Wow, I wish the Sonics had him,” which caused me sadness on two levels: I was sad because I obviously have not completely accepted the reality that the Sonics are gone and I experienced the post-traumatic sadness that the Sonics had such a lame series of big men that Joel Przybill was making me lust.
15. Roy is going to be a top five player in the league very shortly. He plays exactly like he did at the UW. He looks impossibly slow (his spin moves seem to take years to develop) out there and yet he destroys everybody. It’s a thing of beauty.
16. Nate McMillan has lost maybe twenty pounds. He looks good.
17. As we walked to our car, a group of young men drove by, honking the horn and screaming, “Go Blazers!” out the windows. This happened after a November game against the Wolves. Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!
18. For years, I hated Luke Ridnour, could never figure out why people thought he was so special and had so much potential, and wanted him to be traded. I think I might be addicted to concept of “hating a massively overrated point guard,” so Sergio might become my villain as I scream for Nate to put in Bayless.
19. The curvy bathrooms with the artsty exits are a little bit Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t know whether to pee or roll a twenty-sided die.
20. I had a great time and am looking forward to going to nine more games this year.
21. Though I’m still mad that I couldn’t find the corn dogs.

A very good read, and funny, I found over at Blazers edge. Sherman's the man.

 

[Entity]

I wonder if one of those nine other games he's going to will feature the Thunder. I think he'd be surprised by the disdain Portland fans would have for a terrible team representing a brand name that's never played in this building.

 

[Boob-No-More]

A very good read, and funny, I found over at Blazers edge. Sherman's the man.

4. The crowd in the fourth quarter was loud and excited. It was maybe 60-70% playoff atmosphere and it was just a November game against Minnesota.

We were there, screaming our heads off. I know it was Minnesota in November, but I could hardly talk the next day.

I'm glad Sherman didn't mention the booing of Kevin Love. I thought Blazer fans had more class than that and it was completely unecessary. I'm glad Sherman didn't let that have a negative impact on his experience.

5. There are far more people wearing Blazers jerseys than the Sonics fans ever did.

Us again. The whole famn damily decked out in our red jerseys. We're going to two games in a row later this months. So, we'll be breaking out our new black jerseys for one of the games (probably Miami).

6. I never thought it would happen, but yes, there is an NBA arena that is even paler than Key Arena. Wow, there is a distinct absence of melanin in Rose Garden.

Yes, us again. What can I say? Northern Euopean ancestors and living in a cloudy climate makes Casper look like he has a nice tan next to us.

9. HARDLY ANYBODY LEFT THE GAME EARLY!

We NEVER leave early. No matter what the score, we stick it out to the end. I just don't get the whole show-up late, leave early mentality. Attending a Blazers game is the highlight of our evening and one of our favorite family activities. Why would we want it to end prematurely?

20. I had a great time and am looking forward to going to nine more games this year.

Us too. Sounds like Sherman got the same quarter-season weekend pack we did. We also picked up tickets for the Miami game on the 26th. So, we have 10 more (at least) games to look forward to. We'll probably pick up a couple more games over the course of the season. We went to 13 games last season - and that seems about right given our other commitments (coaching and playing sports, school, etc.)

BNM

 

[Boob-No-More]

I wonder if one of those nine other games he's going to will feature the Thunder. I think he'd be surprised by the disdain Portland fans would have for a terrible team representing a brand name that's never played in this building.

Not if he got the same 10-game weekend pack we did (and it sounds like he did). The two Thunder games in Portland are on a Wednesday and a Monday. So, not part of the weekend pack. Ironically, both times the Blazers play in Oklahoma City this season are on Friday evenings.

BNM

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

If he's enamored with Przybilla, just wait until he sees Greg Oden.