When pondering the whole Sonics/Oklahoma City debacle, one is hard-pressed to find any positive developments that have emerged as a result of that whole sordid mess. However, following weeks of tortuous cogitation, I was finally able to come up with one. The news that the City of Seattle was able to retain the rights to the Sonic name helps to further the precedent set by the City of Cleveland who prohibited Art Modell from taking the Browns’ name when he moved the team to Baltimore. This is a good thing. It sends a message to those greedy, carpet bagging owners that says “You may steal my team, but keep your filthy hands off our unique, regional identity.”

This further got me to wondering as to ways in which the league might redress those instances of team identity theft that predate the Cleveland precedent. More tortuous cogitation led me to formulate a few modest ideas that I’d like to share with you here.

Let’s start with the most egregious case of all: The Utah Jazz. Did I miss something here? When did the Mormon Tabernacle Choir start getting’ all jiggy with blue notes, modal improvisation and syncopated beats? No, this name can not - must not - stand. Accordingly, I hereby entreat league officials to mandate that Utah immediately trade the name back to its city of origin: New Orleans. Y’know, the land where jazz was born. In return, the New Orleans franchise will send the naming rights of its NBA franchise – the Hornets - to Utah, whose state nickname conveniently happens to be “The Beehive State.” Now, what could be more fitting than that?

That one was easy. Unfortunately, other instances don’t readily lend themselves to such a neatly packaged solution. But forge on we must. We’ll now consider the case of the Bedge’s most collectively detested team. Other than the Utah Jazz, is their any more inappropriately named NBA franchise than the L.A. Lakers?  I mean, c’mon, L.A. scarcely has a drop of freshwater that it doesn’t steal from either Northern California or the Colorado River. Lakes? What lakes? Other than Veronica, this town has never had one of their own that I can think of.

Unfortunately, returning the name to its place of origin in Minneapolis may not prove so simple. Yeah, Minnesota’s got lakes. I’ve seen the license plate; they got like 100,000 – or is it 1,000 - or maybe it’s 10,000… hell, I can never remember. Anyway, they got lots of ‘em. So many that they probably don’t need one more. Especially not one that’s been polluted by all those years in L.A. I’m guessing the people of Minnesota will opt to pass and stick with their Timberwolves – more Lake Woebegone than Lake Show - but hey, at least they won’t be assuming responsibility for a Superfund site that’s been thoroughly contaminated with Kobalt Selfate. For the scientifically challenged, that’s a known carcinogen.

OK, we’ve determined that the Laker moniker shouldn’t remain in L.A. and it can’t go back to Minny, so where do we send it? How about to Milwaukee, a city which rests on the shores of one of America’s most polluted lakes already! And in exchange, the good people of Wisconsin can reciprocate by shipping the Bucks name to a city where the ostentatious display of wealth is regarded as one of the paramount virtues. It would also be an apt name for a franchise who’s never been averse to spending its way to success.

Finally, there is one more situation that is just crying to be addressed. This one concerns the team that once played its home games in Vancouver. No, not the place that Portlanders go to avoid paying Oregon taxes, but the one up in Canada. I’ve heard it’s pretty wild up there and there they still got savage beasts roaming around. Y’know, like the grizzly bears that their erstwhile pro hoops team was named after. But then that team moved to Tennessee where I think the most recent grizzly sighting occurred on the day that Daniel Boone shot the last one. So, yeah, the Memphis Grizzlies name? Gotta go.

I’m thinking a suitable destination would be Sacramento. Not exactly grizzly country either, but there is one on the State flag. That’s more than you’re ever gonna find in Memphis, chum. In exchange, Memphis gets to honor Elvis, perhaps their most famous native son, by renaming their hoop team with the appellation by which he was commonly known. The real problem here lies in persuading the Sactos to relinquish that Kings nickname. Given the growing acceptance of the “unitary executive” concept as well as the sitting governor’s somewhat autocratic tendencies, the California capital may be loath to part with a name that so neatly encapsulates the current zeitgeist. The league may just have to step in here and convince them that a name swap would be for the greater good. If that don’t work, David Stern can go all “unitary executive” on ‘em himself. In the end, I’m pretty sure the Governor would understand.

Well, I’ve prattled on long enough. There’s surely some Darius Miles news breaking somewhere that requires my immediate attention.  But I just wanted to put these ideas out for your perusal and possible discussion. I am in the process of drafting an online petition on this matter that I will eventually be forwarding to the Commissioner’s Office. I hope that once you’ve read this, you will consider signing it.

I haven't seen any reference to this story posted anywhere here yet. If I missed it, please accept my apologies and go ahead and delete forthwith. However, I feel it has important - albeit troubling - implications for the Blazer franchise and is therefore worthy of note.

Last week, in the comments section of Ben's post about Miles' suspension for the use of diet pills, I wrote about the disturbing ethical implications of Portland's possible complicity in how Miles' confidential medical information was leaked to the press. In my comment, I wrote:

If it does come out that the Blazers were the party responsible for leaking word of Miles’ suspension to the public-at-large, I’m afraid it would reflect extremely poorly on the team. Not only would they have violated Miles’ right to have his medical information kept private, but it would appear to have been done with the intent of deterring other teams from giving him a chance.

Now, according to the Trib's Dwight Jaynes, the Blazers may be subject to investigation for "violation of federal regulations in regard to public comments about the medical condition of former player Darius Miles." In this case, the "public comments" in question were not related to the details of Miles' substance abuse suspension. Rather, the concern appears to be that Pritchard may have been too free and easy in disclosing the particulars of Miles' knee injury to the press. Jaynes writes:

The problem for Pritchard and the Blazers is that those statements could be a violation of the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Availability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Since the HIPAA privacy rule went into effect on April 14, 2003, pro and college teams in all sports have been very reluctant to reveal specific details of player injuries without the permission of the player.

Why would the Blazers risk possible charges of violating federal law? Again, Jaynes:

Obviously, [the] incentive for the Blazers [is] to hope Miles never plays again. And perhaps an incentive for the team to be as negative as possible in describing Miles’ chances of ever playing again — thereby discouraging other teams from taking a chance on him.

I had speculated in my comments on Ben's post that this may indeed have been the Blazers' incentive for leaking news of Miles' substance abuse suspension.  Obviously, I am not privy to high level discussions in the Blazers' front office so I have no idea if this is true or not. But whatever the motivations, this whole situation is beginning to stink to high heaven. It seems that at the very least, the team may be guilty of a HIPAA violation, no trivial matter. And, at the worst, the team might also be guilty of employing underhanded tactics to hinder a player from pursuing his career on another team.

Flame away...

In a thread over at Forum Blue and Gold, commenters wound up enaging in a rather, um, spirited discussion over the Blazers' prospects in the Western Conference this year.

The discussion was kicked off by one commenter (who was subsequently accused of being a closet Blazer fan) who offered his predictions for the Western Conference. In his analysis he had Portland and LA battling it out for supremacy in the West, with the Lakers ultimately edging out the Blazers for the #1 spot.

Naturally, this produced a firestorm of objection from the assorted multitude. One such poster called the  Blazers a "fragile" team:

They’ve been rumored to have tried to trade away both of their SFs-and they know Batum is yrs away from being ready. Having key players on a young team oppenly regarded as trade bait worked out well for the Bulls last yr,didn’t it?
They’re not satisfied w/their PG and traded away the back-up the coach trusted. Their Euro PG,Rodriguez,whined last yr about playing time,and right now he looks like the fourth PG. Only now his unhappiness will have a sympathetic ear in Fernandez,who has said he might go back to Europe if he doesn’t get playing time! Throw in Rodriguez is a fan fav while the coach doesn’t trust his game at all.

 He then goes on to characterize some of the teams' personnel dealings (i.e. the leak of Miles' suspension) as "slightly sleazy" which might potentially result in player/front office friction. 

For you Blazer fans, an interesting read, to be sure. If not exactly an accurate summation of Portland's state of affairs, it's does provide a window  into Lakerfan's somewhat restless turn of mind vis a vis your team.

First, a few of my thoughts on last night's game.

Despite the unfortunate outcome, I found it tremendously entertaining viewing. And, much as I loathe Isiah, his unquestioned gift for unearthing below-the-radar talent has given the Knicks some exciting young players. Lee, Robinson, Balkman, Chandler all show tremendous promise and hint at a bright future ahead. In his game recap Dave asks Knick fans if we "would prefer to field this lineup for the short term rather than the bloated, overpaid, selfish, directionless mess they started the season with." My answer is a resounding, shout-it-from-the-rooftops "YES." Problem, of course, is that we first need to find someplace to dump Zach, Eddy, Stephon, and Jamal whose absurd mega-contracts all but command that they play mega-minutes. And the only real dumping ground for those contracts in today's NBA is directly upstairs from the Madison Square Garden hardwood in the executive suites of Two Penn Plaza.

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Sometimes in the life of a fan, there comes a moment when one's devotion to a team must move beyond the simple accounting of wins and losses. We become faced with the recognition of a higher calling, as it were. Those who heed this calling will then embark on an almost spiritual quest that we are compelled to undertake in order to help the team achieve the everpresent dream of perfection.

This is the story of one such moment.

Inspired by timbo's suggestion, I had determined to embrace the noble, albeit quixotic, vision of leading a packed Rose Garden into the first ever chant of "Fire Isiah" at an arena outside of New York.

It would be the perfect setup. With ESPN on hand to broadcast the game to a national audience, the chant would undoubtedly spark similar outbursts at other arenas throughout the Association. Before long, it would grow into such a vociferous national phenomenon, that even the leaden-headed owner of the Knicks, James Dolan, would no longer be able to shrug off the continuing embarrassment that is the Isiah Thomas regime.

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Because I know that you, my good friends here at Blazer's Edge, can never get your fill of schadenfreude where a certain auld acquaintance of yourn is concerned, I direct you to peruse this latest offering authored by one of my long-suffering brethren at knickerblogger.net.

It's entitled The Poison of 20 and 10.

Bet you'll never, ever guess who they're referring to.

He's a 6'3, 200 pound point guard. His total NBA career has encompassed about 200 games or so thus far. Despite a distinguished college career which included strong performances in the NCAA tournament, by his third professional season, he's widely regarded as a bust.

His name frequently surfaces in trade rumors, eagerly repeated by many of the team's fans who'd like nothing more than to see him on the next plane out of town.

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Or is it more evidence of the scant respect accorded the Blazers by national media types who feel it's really not worth the effort to actually, like, get the players' names right?

Or, is it just another opportunity for a sportswriter to offer up yet one more cheap crack about Greg Oden's somewhat, ummm, "mature" appearance?

You be the judge. Check out Kenny Smith's New Year's NBA Resolutions and scroll down to his entry for Portland.

Hope all of you have a very happy, healthy 2008 (during which the Knicks will meet up with the Blazers at least three times: on Feb 1 at the Rose Garden; on Mar 8 at Madison Square Garden - and in late spring at the NBA-TV studios in Secaucus, New Jersey!)

The current resurgence of interest in the Blazers, along with their limited regional TV access, has driven many fans to follow the games on the team's local radio affiliate, KXL. As a result, there are probably a lot of folks who are now listening to Blazers' radio broadcasts much more than they have in the past. This has certainly been true in my case. Throughout the streak, my interest in the Blazers has reached a point where I want to follow each game in real time. And so - since I am not a Comcast subscriber - I have come to grow quite familiar with the work of play-by-play man, Brian Wheeler. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt...

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Here in Blazerland, it seems the jury has returned and returned its unanimous verdict on Portland's blockuster trade of Draft Day '07:

When judged purely from the standpoint of talent (and NOT its salary cap implications) the trade of Zach Randolph for Channing Frye has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the Blazers.

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