Excited about basketball

When Rudy Fernandez bounced a pass through a Sacramento King's legs to LaMarcus Aldridge for a huge stuff, basketball thrust itself back into my brain like it hadn't since the late 90s. When was the last time you were really excited about the NBA, or the Blazers for that matter? Well, other than last season before Oden's surgery. Finally the Blazers have a team we Oregonians can embrace! No more jailblazers, no more weed in tinfoil, no more freakin' Zach Randolph! The team has class, a ton of talent, and a big man who can bang with the best of 'em. Any Blazer fan who wasn't excited when he or she saw Fernandez dunk over Dwight Howard in the Olympics (note video at the bottom of the post) when he was playing for Spain was either crazy or blind, but if that was the case, he or she wouldn't have seen it anyways. I'm not sure if you all noticed it, but there was an interesting picture being painted in the Rose Garden last night. On one side there were Oden and Fernandez, the two newcomers for Portland, playing quiet, yet powerful ball and finally bringing Portland back into the spotlight as a team that does it the right way. On the other side was Sacramento, a team that just traded away Ron Artest after several years of distractions and problems. Average Joe/Jill Blazer fan almost feels bad for the Kings because he or she knows how the team's fans feel. So, Kings fan, Blazer fan has a message: be strong, keep the faith, but don't stop loving, or you'll go the way of Supersonics fan.
A lot of credit goes to Kevin Pritchard for stepping in and making the right moves to create a cohesive team with good people who won't clash. I know we're only a few games in to the preseason, but boy is this a team I want to back.
-Alex