How to React When Ex-Trail Blazers Come Back to Play Against Portland

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Hank Stern, GolocalPDX Contributor

What to do as a Trail Blazers fan when ex-Blazers return to Portland after using free agency to play elsewhere?

To cheer during pre-game introductions in recognition of their past exploits in Portland?

To boo in anger because they spurned Portland – and by extension those of us as fans who are too blindly loyal to root for another team – more cruelly than your first crush rejected you?

Or even to boo them every time they touch the ball in the Moda Center?

We’re here to help apply some fan’s logic to what are essentially emotional questions. So here is your behavioral guide for how to treat ex-Trail Blazers when they come back to play against Portland:

If they left for more money, it’s hard to blame them. Much as we as fans treat sports as a passion, it must be a business for the players who have a short career to maximize their value – in reality just a handful of contracts to get their full worth on the market.

There are gradations of course in this category. Somebody who leaves to make $10 million more over a four-year deal is much easier to accept than somebody who skedaddles to squeeze out an extra $1 million over the same time period.

Closely related to leaving for more money is leaving for a franchise based in a state with a lower state income tax. No fan wants to look up a chart of comparative state income tax rates before deciding whether to cheer or boo. But the simple truth is Texas and Florida have no income tax. Oregon does.

REACTION: Cheer with gusto if they left for a lot more money and/or opted to live in a state with no income tax. A golfer’s clap if they departed to chase just a little more cash and/or they went to play somewhere with an income tax similar to Oregon’s.

If they left to return home, doesn’t that allow us to believe the illusion that it’s not all about the money? Or in this case that a player has made so much money he can afford to make decisions for more sentimental reasons.

LeBron James is obviously a clear example of this scenario, returning as a hero to his native Ohio after becoming arguably the most hated athlete in Cleveland history when he “took his talents to South Beach” before that to chase championships with Miami (see the next category for more).

REACTION: Difficult to boo somebody for going home and/or playing for the team they cheered for as a child. Show some class while cursing the fact that Kevin Love aside, Oregon is not well-suited to lure major free agents to Portland with a promise of home cooking.

If a superstar leaves to chase a championship with a better team, ala LeBron, that’s pathetic. Aren’t superstars supposed to lead teams, not go sniffing around for dream teams?

If a middling player seeks a team where he is more likely to contribute to a title, that’s a little more understandable.

REACTION: Well within your rights to boo every time said superstar touches the ball. If it’s a role player, booing only during introductions should suffice.

If they defected to a hated rival, it’s really all-out Armageddon. This animus is softened only slightly if they’re making more money.

If it’s a situation where they’re offered more money than Portland is willing to pay, it’s likely there are other landing places that would cause Trail Blazers fans less agita.

Of course, Players moving to a new team are well within their rights to only look forward and forget past big games between their old team and their new team. And we’re well within our rights as fans to only look backward as we feel the wound.

REACTION: Wait outside the arena to curse his decision as he gets off the team bus.

Sadly, I recommend you save this guide. We may need it several times in the season to come.

A native Oregonian, Hank Stern had a 24-year career in journalism, working for more than a decade as a reporter with The Associated Press in Oregon, New Jersey and Washington, DC. He worked seven years for The Oregonian as a reporter in east Multnomah County, Washington County and Portland’s City Hall. In 2005, he became Willamette Week’s managing news editor and worked there until 2011.