I want to take a little time and talk about some of the more frustrating parts of the Portland Trail Blazers’ fan base. Now before I dive into all my frustrations, let me just say that I love being a part of such a passionate fan base. I think we are lucky in that fans are always showing up for games and the Moda Center really never looks empty. The fans are so crazy when the Lakers come into town or when the Heat come into town that it makes you feel a part of something. I really want to see how this place rocks in the playoffs. I think we have a significant advantage when it comes to home-court play and I cannot wait until we can use it for the playoffs. However, with so many fans in Portland, there are always those people that seem to soil it or have other people from out of state perceive the fans as nuts, in a bad way.

This blog idea mainly started by reading comments after the first preseason game against the Clippers a couple of nights ago. I, personally, thought we played well for the roster we had and I think we held our own against, arguably, the deepest team in the NBA. To only lose by 8 when your all-star PF doesn’t play and when two key bench players are held out for rest and injury is a pretty significant feat, in my opinion. I did not see it as the end of the world and this is what the preseason is for. Could we have played better in some aspects? Of course, the defense could have been better and the most obvious observation is that we could have scored a lot better. This is what the preseason is for. To get the rust off and get your strategies in place so when the regular season does come around, you will not have games like this. However, Blazer fans already are complaining about how this season is going to be awful and how our offseason additions, who most of them loved during the summer, are not going to cut it or they just weren’t the right choice. People, it is one dang game! I was not expecting Lopez or Robinson to both have 20 points and 10 rebounds. I was not expecting Lillard to drop 40 and play lockdown defense while looking like the second coming of Gary Payton. Give. It. Time. There are plenty more preseason games and do keep in mind that the Clippers are a good team. Were you all expecting to blow them out by 20, especially without LaMarcus Aldridge?

The downside of having a passionate fan base sometimes is that they can conjure fantasies and expectations that are just flat out unreasonable. The fans want to jump to the playoffs right away and think that every season; we are going to be amazing. I respect that and, honestly, I do that too. You want to root for your team and I think it is healthy for fans to always expect the best from the roster, but let’s not go way off the deep end. Many times, after we win a game, I will go look at comments and people think we are the Miami Heat. But, when we lose a game, it’s time to trade Batum or Aldridge. Or, it’s time to get rid of Olshey. Or, it’s time to complain about how we are a small market team and we can’t get anybody here. Or, and this is my favorite one, we complain about the referees, which we do a lot. This baffled me after the first preseason game. People were already complaining about the referees. Really? We starting early this year are we? People, it is not ALWAYS the referees’ fault. There are many games where the Blazers do get calls our way, but we don’t pay attention. We can only see the negative calls. Fans, you just need to calm down and realize that this team will lose and most of the time it will be their own doing and not the referees.

Anyway, I want to end by saying that we should be supportive of this team and that we should root and always look for the positive side for every season. However, the fans are really positive or really negative need to come back to reality. The Blazers are not perfect and we should not expect perfection. What we should expect is hard working players who try to get better every single day and we have those. Just sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy the fact that a new NBA season is right around the corner.