lthough this rebuilding project has been happening since 2006 when the team landed Washington guard Brandon Roy and Texas forward LaMarcus Aldridge through wily draft deals by general manager Kevin Pritchard, it was not until the team jettisoned black hole but incredibly talented scorer, Zach Randolph, to the NBA wasteland that resides on 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets in Manhattan that these efforts truly took shape. Although it was widely reported that Roy had taken emotional leadership of the team earlier in the previous campaign during a locker room confrontation with Randolph, the Michigan bred forward had remained the franchise cornerstone due to his impressive statistics, knack for scoring, and large contract. It became increasingly evident to all Blazer fans that Randolph was holding this team back. I didn’t necessarily want to believe it myself at the time because Z-Bo simply put up numbers game after game but his style of play (poor passer, lack of defense, me-first attitude) kept the Blazers in neutral. Once Randolph was gone, Roy, Coach Nate MacMillan, and an assortment of young and hungry Blazers could revamp their schemes and begin establishing the “new culture” that Pritchard had vowed when he first was named assistant General Manager in 2006 and ultimately General Manager in 2007. The “new culture” received a swift kick in the ass from Lady Luck when the first pick in the 2007 NBA draft was miraculously bestowed upon Portland and Greg Oden, a man-child center from Ohio State landed in our laps. The moment The Big Silly was drafted an excitement shot through Portland as if Clyde Drexler had performed a pterodactyl like swoop to the basket. Fans began seeing visions of Bill Walton’s beard bopping down Broadway celebrating Portland’s only NBA championship in that glorious summer of 1977. Then, the record skipped.
