With the upcoming basketball season close at hand, the city of Portland is getting ready to sound off, RIP CITY! Like many Oregonians, I am a Portland Trail Blazer fan. The Blazer franchise has been completely rebuilt over the past two seasons, and with every great team, there is a rival. While the Blazers have been rebuilding, the Supersonics have been collapsing. Throughout the past year I have been asked that as a Portland fan I must stand behind I-5 brother, the Seattle Supersonics, to prevent their relocation to Oklahoma City. However I as a Trail Blazer fan could not do this, and now the Seattle Supersonics are the Oklahoma City Thunder. I chose not for fight for the Sonics not because I hate the Supersonics or the city of Seattle. This fact is quite the opposite, I love Seattle, and it is an amazing city. I chose not to fight against the Sonics relocation because the Blazers as a team will gain far more.
Every football season the Seattle Seahawks are force fed to the City of Portland through the local media. This of course is because Portland is lacking a professional football team and Seattle is our closest fix. Hopefully with the relocation of the Sonics, the Blazers will become Seattle’s basketball fix. Yes, I know the die hard Sonics fans will never cheer for the Blazers no matter what the geographic location of the team (much like myself with the Seahawks). However those who need the fix will find themselves with a quick 3 hour drive down I-5 to a wonderful city, an amazing state of the art arena, and an exciting young championship bound team.
So for those willing to accept Portland as ‘their’ team, Portlanders will accept you with open arms, much like you have done with us for so many years. Seattle will lose a team and gain another. The city of Portland will gain a major fan base that will bring further support for Oden, Roy, Aldridge, Rudy and the rest. The local media will no longer be split between which team to focus on, the Blazers or the Sonics, now the choice is obvious, the only northwest basketball team will get the media attention and the airtime. So despite the Blazers losing the team that has been are heated rivals for decades, we will gain so much more. So long Supersonics, hello Seattle fan base, welcome to RIP City.
