Portland Trail Blazers: All the Drama in a Nutshell

Main Entry: dra·ma
Pronunciation: \ˈdrä-mə, ˈdra-\

3 a : a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces. b : dramatic state, effect, or quality

Last week, fans and local media were thrown for a loop when Tom Penn, Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Portland Trail Blazers, was fired for no apparent reason. It was a slow week for a fan base that is in tune with so many aspects of the team. The firing was a huge surprise and the beginning of a nightmarish couple of days for some higher-up members of the organization.

Although, the team did win a game on Friday, so that was good.

Following Penn's dismissal, the attention began to shift from Penn to Warren LeGarie, who represents both Penn and Kevin Pritchard. People wondered how this firing would affect Pritchard and whether or not there were bigger problems.

Over the weekend the most recent bout of drama began with Henry Abbott of TrueHoop , who had this to say about A New Kind of Blazermania :

But in Portland, things are different, because the firing of Penn is the first serious crack in the facade of the new-era Blazers. And through that crack, fans can peer into the team's inner workings. The scene is ugly. It may even foretell the end of the happy Blazers story Portland fans celebrate as real-time folklore.

This was only the beginning, as Dwight Jaynes quickly chimed in with his take on LeGarie :

Look, I understand the role of an agent. His one and only responsibility is to do what's best for HIS CLIENT. Not any team or any fan base. I totally understand that and it shouldn't be any other way. If I'm paying an agent, I want him to do the same thing. But please, folks, when you're listening to this character rant and rave and talk about "drive-bys" and all the rest, remember where he's coming from. He'd like to get the attention yanked away from Penn and he'd like to get Pritchard a contract extension. That's his job.

So now we've got a questionable firing, an unstable front office, and an agent who's got his own agenda. It would seem that things are beginning to unravel in Portland. Then of course, the story goes bigger with a column from Peter Vecsey of the New York Post .

Vecsey hit LeGarie personally, a all of his past clients. He builds a case of disdain for LeGarie, then finishes with these accusations about the situation in Portland :

LeGarie relayed this message to team president Larry Miller, and the Blazers fell for it. After they extended Penn's contract, LeGarie pushed the envelope further by attempting to get the relatively underpaid ($800G) Pritchard a new contract. For some strange reason, Allen's group felt manipulated . . . and didn't hide its displeasure.

Fans were hit hard over the weekend, but that was still only the tip of the iceberg.

The focus was once again shifted today as Adrian Wojnarowski went after Pritchard once again, saying he is "largely incapable of running the organization," and making plenty of harsh accusations with the support of numerous anonymous NBA sources.

Whether or not any of this is true doesn't matter to Woj—he loves to hate on KP any time the opportunity presents itself. Here's one of Wojnarowski's more impressive catastrophe-induced paragraphs :

Now, LeGarie has overplayed Pritchard's hand in Portland, ripped his bosses, and here's Pritchard's dilemma: Does he stand strong with LeGarie on his scorched-earth policy, or dump the agent and throw himself upon Allen's mercy?

But this was a bad situation getting worse, leading to the inevitable pseudo-press conference yesterday in which Kevin Pritchard and Larry Miller both took questions and discussed the situation. It wasn't exactly the medication we needed, and may have led to more questions.

Ben Golliver of BlazersEdge has all of the audio and transcribed answers here .

If you've been paying attention today, your head is probably spinning. What happened to our airtight front office? We all thought things were gravy.

Within a week Penn has been fired; the executives are apparently in disarray; and  Pritchard is now the bad guy? Strange but true right now, even if it's not KP's fault.

Hopefully this is just another over-scrutinized situation that just needs a little time to pass. I don't believe it's as bad as everyone is making it out to be, but who knows? Do any of us know what goes on behind closed doors, or even who these Vulcans really are?

It's time to turn our attention to the stretch run as it pertains to actual basketball games. Portland has a chance to move up in the standings, but the road gets tough: Dallas at home on Thursday, then on the road in New Orleans, and Oklahoma City over the weekend.

These three games against playoff-caliber teams could prove to be a breaking point. With three wins, we'll be eyeing the five seed; three losses and Portland hangs on for the eight spot.

There's still a lot left to be determined on the basketball court, the other drama can wait until after the season ends.

Oh, and last but not least, if you feel the way we do about Pritchard, go sign the petition to keep KP in Portland.

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Photo via OregonLive