Why I hate my team.

Because the summer is a bit of a boring time for basketball, I don't really have a lot to write about. I don't follow college basketball so I don't have anything to say about the draft picks until they actually play in the NBA. I don't want to talk about Free Agency and trading until later in the offseason so I can write a comprehensive column. The Dwight Howard saga is still going, and hopefully will end soon. When it does, I will definitely be writing about that "Dwight-mare". The Summer league has just started and I'm excited to see some of these new guys in action (Especially when the Anthony Davis debuts against Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard!)
Anyway, one of the biggest signings so far has been Brandon Roy's return to the NBA via a two year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. I, along with every other member of Rip City, loved Roy when he played with us and was deeply saddened when he retired. Seeing him return is both good and bad. I'm happy that he is (hopefully) able to continue a moderately successful career, and sad that he isn't doing it with Portland. Rip City members are used to this type of bad luck and suffering though. While I'm glad Roy didn't turn to the dark side and join a team like the Lakers or the Heat, I feel like its yet another diss on Portland and wouldn't be surprised if his comeback with the Wolves was quite successful. This story got me thinking about other bad luck stories Rip City has written over the years, and after going through them all (and there are a lot of them), I came up with 10 stories that showcase Portland's bad luck the best.

Building for contention 101.

Before I say anything basketball related, I'd like to apologize to anyone who's been checking up on my blog for not posting anything this past month. I was bombarded by high school graduation, and then completing Finals and other school-related things. Now that summer is upon us though, I have a little more free time in which to spend on my blog. I know I said in my last column that I hope to be posting more regularly but this time I really mean it. Really. So now that that's out of the way... on to basketball! This article is for all my Blazers fans out there, and I hope you enjoy it! I was in the middle of a column about the NBA Finals finishing but I interrupted that for a quick (Yes, this is quick. Fastest 5,000 words I've ever written) column about the draft. Which is a mere 16 hours from the time I am publishing this article. So you'll likely be getting two columns from me in two days. Exciting! This column is, as the title suggests, how to build the Blazers into a Finals contender. Enjoy! (Note: I was recently told that paragraph breaks make things easier to read, so I tried implementing that in this column.)

The Pre-Finals Finals.

We're halfway through the NBA playoffs, and only four teams remain in the hunt for the Championship. We are set for a highly anticipated Thunder-Spurs matchup between two of the best teams in the league that has Finals-worthy excitement brewing about it. With that being said, we'll be going over everything you need to know for the Western Conference Finals including every relevant player, more statistics than anyone needs to know, breaking down starters and bench players, and looking at why this matchup is so important for the legacies of players on both teams.

A bad ending to a good series: Live Blog #1.

I'm awake at 10 AM to watch Game 7 of the Clippers-Grizzlies series on TV and, more importantly, to live-blog it. For anyone who doesn't know what that means, I basically sit down with my computer and type out my thoughts as the game plays. Below are my thoughts and a summary of how the game went. I'm hoping to do a couple more of these for important games if my schedule allows. Its the last game of Round 1 and is the deciding game between two teams who have provided us with an extremely exciting series. its 10:05 AM and the players are lining up for the tipoff, so here we go!

Mettapocalypse?

I recently received suggestions from multiple people to not make my columns so long, so this is my first attempt at some restraint. Before we get started though, lets take a moment to remember one of the greatest scorers of all time who had no concept of teamwork whatsoever on the 10th anniversary of what is probably the most memorable (and worst) moment in his career. Ladies and gentlemen, the immortal Allen Iverson!Wise words from the 4-time scoring champion that will never grow old. Speaking of Iverson, what's that guy up to these days? Well, according to the media he's apparently testing out a new audience. Why would he do something like that? Probably because of this. While Iverson was out doing... who knows what, the Big Shaqtus went and did this. Great stuff. Too bad Iverson's scoring ability couldn't translate to life success. Maybe he could take a few classes from Dr. O'Neal. With that out of the way, lets look back at what's happened in the past 5 days in the playoffs. In case you haven't kept up with every series, here's the highlights from the weekend (for highlights of the first week, you can go to my earlier column) followed by a brief look at each series so far: