Unfulfilled in Portland, LaMarcus Aldridge Finding Needs Met with Ego-Less Spurs
PORTLAND — Inside the home Blazers' locker room, stylishly mounted in individually lettered silver blocks on the wall the players pass each day to get to work, is a definition.
The relevant term they want to explain inside the Moda Center is: trail blazer.
It is both request and reminder of what it takes to stand fearlessly out as a player and a leader at the highest level of basketball, but it's far more hope than faith that anyone has the courage and confidence to meet such a standard.
In retrospect, it's a fair assessment that LaMarcus Aldridge was not the trailblazer Portland hoped for in his nine years with the city's only major sports team.
He checked plenty of other boxes and connected with many people, but he never pushed the group forward in such an inspirational way that he earned trust.
And him feeling self-centered envy when locals sensed more trailblazer in Brandon Roy or Damian Lillard or even Wesley Matthews only furthered the verdict. Aldridge was a great player and a good guy, but he wasn't clutch or winning or their guiding light.
That's the setup for Aldridge's second act in the NBA, which moved forward Wednesday night with his first game back in Portland—this time playing for the San Antonio Spurs. It felt like he was a stranger as he rode the team bus instead of driving himself from home to the arena, as he wandered into the visiting locker room for the first time ever.
As heralded as Aldridge was over the summer as the league's top available free agent, he has flaws—the main being that he isn't a torchbearer yet and can't understand why others don't still huddle around him for warmth.
As big a deal as that is for an NBA star, the amazing thing is that it might not matter with the Spurs.
Their program is that strong. Respect is only earned in the organic way it occurs within any true community.
Aldridge wasn't promised the world from the Spurs the way he was by the Suns, Lakers or Mavericks—or even the way the Blazers catered to him in hopes of keeping him satisfied. That Aldridge picked the Spurs says something about him beside the fact that he wanted to go home to his comfort zone of Texas (which he very much did).
Maybe Aldridge, deep down, understands he's not a trailblazer—and the tested and proven Spurs are the perfect crew to help him overcome his limitations and win.
Other players have undergone similar second-act makeovers into champions. Pau Gasol and Chris Bosh are two who jump to mind, but Gasol and Bosh always had a humility about them that was easily understood.
Aldridge has been harder to read, yet it's a good guess he wouldn't have joined the Spurs if they'd been coming off another NBA title as opposed to a first-round playoff ouster.
The opportunity is there now for Aldridge to get the credit.
Another championship would be credited to the fact that he was brought into the mix.
(And, come to think of it, that would leave Aldridge at least rightly meeting the definition of the word spur.)
It's enough for him to suppress his ego—at least for now.
Listen closely, and you can hear that ego down but not out, yearning to be acknowledged.
Aldridge's 23 points led the Spurs in their 113-101 victory over the rebuilding Blazers. Asked how it felt to be back in that team-high scoring position, he said, "That's who I am, so it definitely felt good."
He's not wrong. Truth be told, only two guys have ranked in the NBA's top 10 in scoring each of the past four seasons: LeBron James and Aldridge.
"I don't have to be that way every night," Aldridge was quick to add moments later. "But tonight is that night."
Aldridge hasn't been the wise-man addition to the locker room that David West has already been, but he is on his best behavior. Yes, he honestly wants to fit in with this new group.
He also knows he'd better fit, because he's the one who picked it.
The other part of why this might work, though: Don't assume this group—savvy in more ways than one—won't bend to Aldridge's ego.
Sure, Gregg Popovich seemingly takes great pride in treating people badly, and he said of Aldridge's second-half scoring: "We run a motion offense. We didn't isolate him or anything like that. He just gets it naturally like everybody else, and he took advantage of the situations and did a good job."
Although Popovich would never allow Aldridge to be so individual and unassisted as he was in his scoring for Portland, the Spurs' coach isn't pushing Aldridge to do anything much beside practice the pick-and-pop with Tony Parker.
Aldridge told me before the season: "I don't really handle change well." Well, Popovich wants to let Aldridge find his place in this group without forcing it in any predetermined way.
"Right now," Popovich said, "I just want him to feel comfortable. He's got enough right there without me trying to coach him."
Aldridge feels the support.
"We've got Hall of Famers, we've got guys who have been champions over and over that are very selfless and defer to me and let me be myself," he said. "This team is awesome."
They're in the sweet spot now, both sides trying to pick up the check on a great first date.
And it's refreshing to see Aldridge's best face.
There he was before the game, same as before: visiting with groups of at-risk youth he'd invited from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland and St. Mary's Home for Boys in Beaverton. Aldridge was continuing his commitment to those groups, answering their questions ("being tall" is his key to basketball success, he quipped) and putting off his pregame shooting for personal photos or moments (even signing for a kid in a Lillard jersey).
Then there he was late in the game, much different: throwing the extra pass for a key Danny Green three-pointer and even mistakenly over-passing another time when he had the mismatch of Portland guard C.J. McCollum switching over to defend him.
In another seven months or so, we'll find out what really sticks, but some new habits are forming in Aldridge.
The compromises are his ticket to being remembered differently: for a winning legacy in San Antonio, rather than what ground he failed to break in Portland.
Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
