Yes, it's a bit cheesy for me to post a photo of myself with Brandon Roy today. A good friend of mine in the organization even sent me back a two word e-mail after I sent him the photo today- "jock sniff" he called me. I know. But, I couldn't help it. You don't just want the run-of-the-mill photos you see everywhere else do you? I told him, "get your own fricken blog and then you can post pictures of yourself, your son, your dog, and anything else you want." As for me and my blog, today, we run this photo.

To put this in some kind of context, yesterday morning we were actually shooting some stuff for the web site, and for the future, with the new guys. I spent some time interviewing LaMarcus Aldridge, Joel Freeland, and, yes, Roy. They were all as cooperative and enjoyable as we expected. Freeland, from England as you know, started me in talking about the World Cup. I tried to act like I knew what I was talking about but he saw right through me. I did learn that Aldridge does have a nickname. He's the "L-Train," just so you know. Roy is "B-Roy." Freeland told me he doesn't have one, and I told him we'd take care of that for him. That just generated a puzzled look from him. One of the questions I was told to ask all three was if they minded the rain. Freeland is from England, and Roy is from Seattle, so I scrapped that question. I then told Aldridge the 85-degree day we experienced yesterday is pretty much what it's like year round in Portland. I think he bought it.

You fans from Spain who have been checking out the blog, I love ya. I can't tell you how many messages I've received from Sergio Rodriguez fans in the last two days. Some of them are posted below yesterday's blog. I'm sorry if I've neglected him from a lot of this talk. But, you're right. I don't know a lot about him. I will tell you that I'm trying to educate myself. I do know that Kevin Pritchard loves him, and knew him well, and that's good enough for me. I have watched all the video that's floating around on him, and I agree he's impressive. To answer a question a lot of you have sent me, no, Sergio won't be on the summer league team. He's playing for his national team, as many of you in Spain already know.

The Trail Blazers did sign an additional guy for summer league today. Nikoloz Tskitshvili cleared waivers and the Blazers grabbed him. For whatever reason, and there are probably more than a few, he's failed to live up to being the 5th overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. He's been with Denver, Golden State, Minnesota, and Phoenix. But, he's only 23 years old, has great shooting range, and it doesn't hurt to take a look at him. It's not a guaranteed deal or anything, and if all goes well, he may get an invitation to training camp.

The team is now in Lake Tahoe to get ready for the Las Vegas Summer League. Brian Wheeler flew there today and will join me in tomorrow's blog and will let us know what's going on, and how the guys looked in their first practice. Talk to you tomorrow.

 

1 Comments:

aitor14vn said...

How many possibilities has Sergio of playing here next season??? 50%?90%? He's decided to coming (we all know it, here in Spain) and he is absolutely delighted with the new Blazers. Before the trade with the Suns were official he said he wanted to come to Portland (and he has appeared with "his" 11 jersey of the Trail Blazers in every interview he has done!!!) Please, one more time, give him the opportunity to play here next season, because he is the best point guard you will see in so many years.

2:27 AM  

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