Oh Man

So obviously if you watched the Blazer's game you are as disappointed as I am. I really hope that Portland can regroup. The thing that scared me about tonight is that Portland just played bad. How do you turn that around in just a few days. Houston has the upper hand for sure, and its time to start thinking about Tuesday's game being the final home game of the season. I will be sad if that is the case, but all good things must come to an end. Tonight was an interesting experience. Because it is the playoffs the Rose Garden Media area was up to Defcon 4. There were tens times as many people, most of them Chinese thanks to Yao, the commish was in the building, and I ate dinner across the table from Kevin Pritchard.

They opened a whole new section of media seating, and I was put up at the top while all the guys I usually sit with sat down at the bottom. In the middle of the first quarter I moved down to an open sit, and for the whole first I half I sweated thinking someone was going to come and tell me to move back up to the top. It didn't happen, and I ended up sitting in better seats than I have had all year. The media area where everyone usually eats dinner was converted to a press conference room. If you watch the NBA.com videos, or the ESPN footage of the post game press conferences that is where they took place. Pre game David Stern, the NBA commissioner, gave a little press conference. He was in town because Portland was the game he wanted to see. It took him all of two seconds to make his first Hebrew reference. He said he was happy that Portland was back in the playoffs after wandering for so long in the basketball desert. Maybe the highlight of this whole experience. I also go to see Yao's post game as well as all the others that were done. For a few minutes Yao and a Chinese reporter had a conversation in Chinese. I'm sure the reporter, who was from Houston, asked something along the lines of, "how awesome are you and how badly are you going to beat Portland in game two?" Yao probably responded by saying, "I am the greatest basketball player ever, and the Trail Blazers are no match for my Tiger style." There are obviously some perks to being able to have a conversation in front of ten cameras and numerous other recording devices that 90 percent of the people listening and recording can't understand.

My recap is up on the website. Check also for the piece that I wrote about Michael Ruffin that has been run on the center court blog. A win on Tuesday means at least one more game in Portland. That would be nice. I'm not ready for this to be over, both my internship and the basketball season.

One last thing: if Portland ever gets the chance they should swoop up Aaron Brooks. He gave a great interview tonight. He is from Seattle. He went to University of Oregon. He has the attitude that we need, and he has the skills. He was also the only player for Houston that wasn't booed during introductions. Imagine if he were on our team.

Game two is tuesday. Let's hope for something better.