In the all the hoopla surrounding the announcement of this year's NBA schedule, very little media attention was given to the announcement of the first player to be selected to the 2009 NBA All-Star team. Even if there are some sure-fire locks to make the team (Kobe, LeBron, Yao, Dwight Howard, etc.) this year, it seems a little odd that someone would officially be given a spot two months before the season begins.
Normally, I'd be a little wary of any source that claims to know such information, but in this case I'm willing to make an exception. 3-time All-Star Caron Butler has earned that kind of respect:
(Note: Caron mutters a few profanities before making his announcement, so be careful where you listen. However, the last 10 seconds where the declaration goes down is completely clean.)
Let's just hope this year Caron actually plays in the All-Star Game, as opposed to being sidelined with an injury. That would be a nice touch.
Runnin Anne Schatz never looked at me like that.
if you've been reading the national sports blogs this week, you have no doubt been inundated with details of a brewing controversy regarding Erin Andrews' behavior and appearance in the Chicago Cubs' clubhouse. It's a fascinating subject with a number of layers and viewpoints and it raises a ton of legit questions for a Blazersedge symposium on sexism:
This discussion never occurs with such volume and passion if "Erin Andrews" isn't "Erin Andrews!!!"
And the picture above never gets posted here if Rebecca Haarlow, Blazers sideline reporter, isn't, in the eyes of thousands of Blazers fans, "Rebecca Haarlow!!!"
Point blank: This Facebook picture never even ends up in my inbox if it's anyone but Haarlow. (Although, if Mike Rice's knee could be lifted that high, I suppose that would be newsworthy.)
Is this fair to her? Is our world worse because this picture is news, simply by virtue of her personal presentation?
I'm not sure on either question, but I do know that bla bla bla bla you're scrolling back up to look at the picture again, aren't you? bla bla bla If not, post your reaction in the comments.
Keep it clean.
-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)
Mortimer the Green reminded me that one important result of the new schedule being released is that we are that much closer to pinning down the date for Terry Porter's jersey retirement.
To refresh, on June 4 we talked with then-COO Mike Golub who informed Blazersedge that upper management was seriously discussing Terry Porter's jersey retirement.
Quoteth Golub:
We are looking very hard at that. And we're trying to decide the right time, but absolutely. Terry is one of the greatest Trail Blazers both on and off the court, he is just a total class act, one of the best to ever wear the uniform. Yes, we agree with that sentiment very strongly and we are talking about it really seriously. We are trying to figure out when is the right time to act on it.
He also noted that retiring a player's jersey...
...is about doing the right thing and creating a special night for the people involved and for the fans and I think our fans want to see special things. They want to see a new drama every day, they want to see a new story unfold.
The team has told us they recognize our desire to see special things. They've told us they are considering retiring Terry's jersey. They've told us they are waiting for the right time.
And, as of today, we've got the schedule in our hands so we know which times they will be choosing from. Indeed, they will have two perfect opportunities to retire Terry Porter's jersey, the two nights that we host his Phoenix Suns here at the Rose Garden.
These two nights are:
The ball is now firmly in our court. The organization has proven that it is listening to us on this one. So let's talk back. Will our collective vote be the deciding vote? No, probably not. But, it might help. And it certainly can't hurt.
Let the Blazers know when this great moment should go down by casting your vote. And be sure to leave your message for the organization in the comments.
145 votes | Results
In perusing over the newly-released 2008/09 schedule, it's clear that another bad start to the season is simply inexcusable.
Bad starts have repeatedly killed us in the past. Last year, of course, we lost our first five games pretty badly despite having complete roster continuity, and it cost us down the line. Now, we weren't winning in Boston on their opening night and probably were going to lose to either Orlando or Denver, but imagine if we beat Indiana and New Jersey as we should. Win those two and the infamous Juan Carlos Navarro game and we would have earned the home-court advantage against Cleveland in the playoffs.
But wait, there's more. We started 4-9 in 2007 and 12-18 in 2006. 2006 was particularly loony, since Caron Butler was playing off the bench, Chucky Atkins was screwing all sorts of stuff up and Antonio Daniels wasn't doing anything. I'm willing to excuse that tough start, since we were adjusting without Larry Hughes and learning how to incorporate several new faces. But, 4-9 in 2007? The only new piece we needed to integrate was DeShawn Stevenson. I'm not sure a better start would have made a difference in the playoffs, but three more wins there gives us the Southeast Division.
This year, we're going to have roster continuity and a pretty easy schedule. Eight of our first 14 are at home (actually, 15 of our first 24, to be exact), and of the six road games, only two are against playoff teams from last year (Detroit 11/1, Orlando 11/8). We do have tough home games against Utah (11/12), Houston (11/21) and Orlando (11/27), but otherwise, Atlanta's the only other playoff team we face. We have two with Miami (home and away), two with the Knicks (home and away), two with a weakened Hawks team (home and away), New Jersey (at home to start the season), Golden State (at home) and Milwaukee (on the road). There's no reason why we can't win 10 of those 14 games.
We'll need it too, because December brings Boston, Detroit, the Lakers, Philadelphia and Dallas to the Phonebooth and includes road trips to New Orleans, Houston, Philadelphia and Cleveland.
A fast start should be something to count on, since there are no new players to incorporate into the system (unless Dee Brown counts). It's time to stop shrugging off bad Novembers.
Other quick notes about the schedule:
You can find all the times and dates here to go ahead and start making your traveling arrangements. With the price of airline tickets being so high, this is probably a good time to start mapping out which games you can conveniently arrange those business trips and leisure vacations around.
We have 21 national TV games this year, vs the 23 we had last year. BDL breaks down the entire league's national games even more...
20+ nationally televised games: Boston (25), Cleveland (25), Dallas (21), LA Lakers (25), Phoenix (25)10-to-19 nationally televised games: Chicago (10), Denver (16), Detroit (14), Houston (13), New Orleans (12), Orlando (11), Portland (13), San Antonio (19), Utah (11), Washington (11)2-to-9 nationally televised games: Golden State (8), Miami (9), Philadelphia (7), Toronto (2, one on ESPN2)One nationally televised game: Atlanta, LA Clippers, Milwaukee, Memphis, New Jersey, Oklahoma CityZero nationally televised game: Charlotte, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Sacramento
and on the Mavs?...
• 21 nationally televised games for Dirk and Jason Kidd seems high. Same goes for Phoenix. They should "swap" exposure with New Orleans and Utah. (What? Utah is a fun team to watch. Seriously.)
Mark Stein gives us some of the biggest games to watch this year, highlighting a few of the Dallas games:
Oct. 30: Houston at Dallas (TNT) The Mavericks are one of two teams (along with Charlotte) that must wait until Thursday for their opening game, giving Mavs fans more time to fret that the Rockets' acquisition of Ron Artest reduces Dallas to the third-best team in Texas. Nov. 13: Dallas at Chicago (TNT) Mavs owner Mark Cuban could know by this point whether he has won the race to buy the Cubs, which would make this somewhat of a home game for him and certainly spice up his relationship with Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, since Reinsdorf owns the White Sox. Dec. 19: Dallas at New Jersey Jason Kidd is back in Jersey as a visiting player for the first time since, well, making Jersey matter to the NBA.
Oct. 30: Houston at Dallas (TNT) The Mavericks are one of two teams (along with Charlotte) that must wait until Thursday for their opening game, giving Mavs fans more time to fret that the Rockets' acquisition of Ron Artest reduces Dallas to the third-best team in Texas.
Nov. 13: Dallas at Chicago (TNT) Mavs owner Mark Cuban could know by this point whether he has won the race to buy the Cubs, which would make this somewhat of a home game for him and certainly spice up his relationship with Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, since Reinsdorf owns the White Sox.
Dec. 19: Dallas at New Jersey Jason Kidd is back in Jersey as a visiting player for the first time since, well, making Jersey matter to the NBA.
Add to this list of some of the "biggest games" for Dallas the usual San Antonio, Houston, Phoenix (4 games this year, not 3 like last), and Golden State (only 3 this year)... but also add in New Orleans to that mix of rivalry games.
Mike Fisher, Coop, and good ol' Followill discuss the Mavs back-to-backs even further...
B-2-B’s: It’s the toughest challenge in the NBA – back-to-back games – and the Mavs start the season with four of them in the first month of play alone. Most difficult of those? Let’s go with Nov. 3 at home against LeBron’s Cavs, followed 24 hours later by a trip to San Antonio. Dallas has just one B-2-B in December. To open March, Coop and Followill will risk running out of clean undies while observing four games in five nights, a pair of B-2-Bs that include games here against Toronto, there against Seattle, here against the Spurs and there against New Orleans. (SA and NO back-to-back will be a big Southwest Division 24-period, eh?)... In total, the Mavericks have 15 back-to-backs this season. Five of them begin on the road and conclude at home, five are home-away and five are on the road. Says Followill:”The 15 back-to-backs is a number comparable to recent years and still lower than many teams in the league; some teams end up playing over 20 back-to-backs. And yes, I also only spotted one of the dreaded four-in-five nights stretches.’’ One more thing about this: Coop is all over the degree of difficulty. “It seems to me as if the number of difficult games as the second of the B-2-Bs (they would be hard enough on their own) has increased this season,’’ he says. “At SA, home vs. Orlando, at Houston, and that’s just in the first three weeks of the season! Both of the games at Utah are second of B-2-Bs (and preceded by games against Portland). New Orleans in March, preceded by a game at SA. It looks pretty hard to me.’’
B-2-B’s: It’s the toughest challenge in the NBA – back-to-back games – and the Mavs start the season with four of them in the first month of play alone. Most difficult of those? Let’s go with Nov. 3 at home against LeBron’s Cavs, followed 24 hours later by a trip to San Antonio.
Dallas has just one B-2-B in December. To open March, Coop and Followill will risk running out of clean undies while observing four games in five nights, a pair of B-2-Bs that include games here against Toronto, there against Seattle, here against the Spurs and there against New Orleans. (SA and NO back-to-back will be a big Southwest Division 24-period, eh?)...
In total, the Mavericks have 15 back-to-backs this season. Five of them begin on the road and conclude at home, five are home-away and five are on the road.
Says Followill:”The 15 back-to-backs is a number comparable to recent years and still lower than many teams in the league; some teams end up playing over 20 back-to-backs. And yes, I also only spotted one of the dreaded four-in-five nights stretches.’’ One more thing about this: Coop is all over the degree of difficulty.
“It seems to me as if the number of difficult games as the second of the B-2-Bs (they would be hard enough on their own) has increased this season,’’ he says. “At SA, home vs. Orlando, at Houston, and that’s just in the first three weeks of the season! Both of the games at Utah are second of B-2-Bs (and preceded by games against Portland). New Orleans in March, preceded by a game at SA. It looks pretty hard to me.’’
What games are you guys looking forward too the most?
25 votes | Results
The Indiana Pacers released the 2008-09 schedule today which instantly creates some dates of interest to add to the calendar. The Pacers do play the Celtics for their home opener, but they start the season on the road at Detroit. Yeesh, talk about hitting the ground running. Not the best way to start the season with a 1-2 punch against the top contenders in the Eastern Conference.
Here are some other items of interest from the schedule:
Dec 16-28: at Portland, at Houston, at New Orleans, at San Antonio, vs Toronto, vs Boston
That's an 0-6 stretch right there.
Houston -- and new Rocket/former King [redacted] -- doesn't visit Sacramento until April 9.
The Kings meet the Rockets, Blazers and Spurs only thrice.
Mar 29-Apr 15: vs Phoenix, vs New Orleans, at Golden State, at Phoenix, vs Golden State, vs L.A. Lakers, vs Houston, at L.A. Clippers, vs San Antonio, at Denver
There are two, maybe three wins in there.
The first two opponents to visit Sacramento: Minnesota, Memphis.
No Kings games scheduled on February 14.
NBA All-Star Saturday, featuring Quincy Douby in the Three-Point Shoot-out, Donté' Greene in the Slam Dunk Contest, and Mikki Moore in the Skills Competition, with Kevin Martin in a denim suit at courtside, scheduled for February 14.
Is it Donté Greene? Or Donte' Greene?
misterbrister raises the question. The NBA goes with the é. Syracuse has used an apostrophe. ESPN remains agnostic.
Donté/Donte' was born in Munich, and lived in Europe for the first three years of his life. That would hint toward the acute accent, though it is far from definitive.
If it is, in fact, an acute accent, should we adopt its usage? If so, then we must provide equal diacritical ferver in Francisco García's name ... something the NBA does not offer but The Bee sometimes enforces.
We hope to have this serious matter resolved soon.
UPDATE: Reader Matt chimes in via email:
I'm not 100 percent sure, but I can tell you that some computer programs automatically turn an e' into an e with an accent over it. I bet good money that's what happened and no one bothered to check on it. Considering the T-shirts that the folks at Syracuse had made saying Don'te Leave, you can bet that it's an apostrophe. College kids don't mess that stuff up...
UPDATE #2: From TrueHoop's Henry Abbott:
That character in Donte Greene's name that touched it all off is not an apostrophe, as it may appear sometimes online. It's an accent. And the reason a lot of websites don't use it is because accents, in html, can get squirrely. For instance, they can appear as apostrophes.
Now that the official schedule is out, we need to do some thinking.
We'd love to do another Blazersedge Night at the Garden this year. Actually we're planning on two events I think, one actually at a game and one at a restaurant or sports bar after a game on some other date.
For the actual night at the game in the Garden the Blazers want us to select a date early this year. Actually we don't even really get to select a firm date. We have to give them a list of possibilities and they assign us one.
Because of that we're soliciting opinions on the games you'd like to see. Here's how it works:
--The schedule is here. Remember, geniuses, it has to be a home game. (Unless, of course, we have very active imaginations.)
--We'd like ONLY people who think they have a reasonable chance of attending a Blazersedge Night to vote. That means if you already have your season tickets and can't sit with us, please don't vote. If you're out of town and will never make it to Portland for a game, please don't vote. If you think it's a great idea but you know in your heart of hearts that you're not going, please don't vote. This is for people who want to come and will come!
--We'd like you to list your top three choices, in order. ONLY three choices, please. Make it easy for us to read and account for these votes!
--Reminder, this is NOT for the sportsbar/restaurant night after the game...JUST for the ACTUAL night all of us are sitting together in the Rose Garden. Don't bother to vote for the sportsbar/restaurant night now, as a lot of that will depend on the game we get here.
Thanks for helping us!
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)
The NBA has released the 2008-2009 schedule and next season starts off with a bang for the Denver Nuggets.
The opening game of the season is on Wednesday, October 29th in Utah. They then play two days later in Los Angeles against Marcus Camby and the Clippers. The home opener will be the next night at home against the Los Angeles Lakers.
They play 18 games before the calendar flips to December and out of those 18 games they face Utah, the Lakers twice, New Orleans, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Boston. Toss in two games on the road versus the Clippers, one at Golden State, one at Cleveland and the annual disappointing loss at Charlotte and aside from playing Minnesota twice and getting Memphis and Milwaukee at home the Nuggets do not have many gimmies to start off the season. Yes, I just used the word and four times in one (undoubtedly grammatically incorrect) sentence.
One interesting characteristic of the schedule is the Nuggets do not have a home stand or road trip longer than three games until the end of December. Despite the lack of a long road trip, that is a lot of traveling. At one point in the schedule they have seven straight games where they will have to travel in order to play the game. Three of those games between November 19th and November 30th are home games, but they are all split up by single game road trips. That is not a road trip, but it might as well be with all the traveling. Things get worse from a traveling standpoint as the Nuggets have a stretch of 12 such games from December 15th to January 3rd where they will not be in the same city two games in a row.
January 3rd brings the Nuggets first home stand of more than three games as they play seven consecutive games at the P