One of the stories coming out of last night's loss to the Sonics is the blow to the Blazer's chance of a winning record. Another is the Blazer's shooting woes, something that has plagued the team all year, if they don't shoot well the don't win. With Oden coming next year, giving an inside presence that could be capable of easy baskets in the paint, that problem could be solved.
Those stories notwithstanding, the thing I think is most interesting about the game was that it is possibly the last matchup between the Seattle Super Sonics and the Portland Trail Blazers. If Seattle loses the Sonics, which is looking more and more like the inevitable, Portland will be the lone NBA team representing the North West. Having grown up a Blazer's fan and a citizen of the Pacific North West I must say that if the Sonics leave I will be sad to see them go. I never felt that the Blazers and the Sonics were rivals. Just as I've never felt that Portland and Seattle are rival towns. To be a rivalry there has to be a level of contempt between the two groups proposed to be rivals. Boston and New York is a good example of two cities that hate each other and each others sports team. Because Portland and Seattle are the only two cities of their sizes for almost two entire states, because the states are so similar, and because the cities are so different but still similar, I've always felt that Seattle and Portland were allies, not rivals. When it isn't basketball season, the only pro teams I favor are the ones from Seattle. When the Blazers are falling I've looked to the Sonics as a team to support. One of my favorite basketball players of all time is Gary Payton. He went to college in Corvallis, where I grew up, and played his best basketball in Seattle. The best player on the Blazers, Brandon Roy, grew up in Seattle, and played all of his basketball, at every level, in Seattle. If he had a choice of where to play his pro ball, I'm sure he would have chosen Seattle. The two cities and the two States they represent are linked in a way that is more in friendship than in animosity.
Its tragic that a historical franchise like the Sonics might be moved. I think that its more tragic that the North West, a part of the country with only four professional sports franchises, might lose one of the pieces that make it what it is. I really don't see last night's game as the end of a rivalry, but more of the end of a friendship between two cities, and two basketball teams.
