The Seattle Blazer: My Trip to Portland's Rose Garden

This will be the first installment of my new column, "The Seattle Blazer." Each week or so, I'll be analyzing my new team, the Portland Trail Blazers, and I'm going to try my best to not mention the Seattle Sonics (RIP).

I made the journey down to the Rose Garden on Halloween to watch the Blazers in the home opener. It's about 180 miles from Seattle, and it was definitely worth the drive. 

The first thing I saw when my friend and I approached the arena was the ESPN NBA van. And guess who was standing no more than 20 feet from me? My hero, Kevin Calabro (He's the dude in the picture with me on my profile.). He was the Sonics' play-by-play broadcaster for a long time, and he's one of my biggest influences.

I talked to Calabro, Nancy Leiberman, and Jon Barry for a bit, then the doors finally opened at six o'clock for a 7:30 tip.

The first place we went was the team shop, where I stocked up on Blazers apparel, and our next stop was heading down by the court for shoot-around. The only Blazer out there was Steve Blake, but on the Spurs' end of the court, we saw Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Portland State star and former Blazer Ime Udoka.

The view from Section 322, Row R was beyond nosebleed. We were the top row in the arena, but it didn't matter. I was at an NBA game that didn't include the Seattle Sonics for the first time.

Throughout the game, I was thinking about the now-Thunder, and how much I really miss them. It didn't fully sink in until the season began, and I wasn't sure if I was ready to move on.

Then the game started, and I felt like a Portland Trail Blazer. It was a game with a playoff atmosphere, which was something I hadn't experienced since 2005.

The city of Portland was introduced to a rookie who didn't have much hype heading into the season—Nicolas Batum. He was drafted 25th overall this year by Houston, and scored 12 points in 22 minutes. Batum is just one of the talented rookies on this roster.

The two team leaders, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge took over late in the game, and scored 26 and 23 points respectively. 

I think the beautiful thing about Portland is that they look capable to win 50 games, and Greg Oden has barely played. When he gets back, the Blazers get a lot better.

Portland's 1-2 start is acceptable, only because they've played three playoff teams, two on the road. When the Blazers get into the groove of their season, I expect nothing less than a trip to the playoffs, because this region needs it.