Talking sports: Trail Blazers trading frenzy, MLB strike and Adley Rutschman, Pioneers’ Jay Locey to the USFL
Weighing in some sporting issues of the day …
• There must be a method to Joe Cronin’s madness.
Or as Ricky Ricardo might say, “Somebody’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
Thoughts on the Portland Diamond Project, Kevin Love and Payton Pritchard, Bill Schonely, Jermar Jefferson, Hamilcar Rashed and a new book by Ben Golliver …
Questions on your mind, for which I have answers …
• What’s going on with the Portland Diamond Project? It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the bid for major league baseball in the city.
A: A lot, says PDP managing partner Mike Barrett.
“We’ve been crazy busy,” Barrett tells me. “I can’t give you any specifics. Hopefully, we’ll be in position to be able to speak publicly on it soon, but we’re in a sensitive time right now.
On the Trail Blazers’ lousy start, Hassan Whiteside and my former boss, Alabama’s long snapper, a Texas grad assistant and all those $$ tossed around in college football
Things on my mind as we kick off a new (and hopefully far better) year …
• A statistical analysis of the Trail Blazers’ disappointing seven-game start to the 2020-21 campaign portends that the local NBA quintet is fortunate to be 3-4.
The off-season emphasis by general manager Neil Olshey was help at the defensive end, something that was a near-constant during Terry Stotts’ first eight years as coach.
Blazers-Lakers should be an intriguing matchup. And my pick for the series winner is …
A few observations as the eighth-seeded Trail Blazers take on the challenge of facing the top-seeded L.A. Lakers in a seven-game first-round playoff series to which everyone across NBA circles will be paying attention …
• In a word, watching the Blazers’ nine-game run-up to the NBA playoffs has been fun.
Not because they made it — after 45 years in the sportswriting business, I’ll probably never think like a fan — but because Portland’s seeding games have been so watchable.