Nearly 12,000-strong make Blazers Fan Fest a success

The Portland Trail Blazers continued their preseason tradition Friday when they held the annual Fan Fest scrimmage in front of a crowd of 11,525 at the Rose Garden.

The free event offered Blazers fans a first-come, first-served sneak peek into what the coming season has in store for the city’s NBA team. While concessions at the arena remained at the standard prices, the always-appreciated free ticket made the event difficult to pass up for Blazers fans.  

As the evening approached, so did the die-hard Blazer fans wanting to get good seats. Lines weaved around the Rose Garden, and when 5 p.m. hit, the crowds swarmed on the doors. News of the team had been up and down as of late, and for the Rip City regulars, Fan Fest provided a great chance to see the status of those players whose futures seem to be in limbo.

Question marks have surrounded Centers Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla throughout the offseason, and fans wanted to know when they would be ready for games. But even without their presence on the court, interest in the condition of the players the Blazers acquired over the summer was still high.

There wasn’t a bad seat in the house on Friday, as the crowd was just small enough that the Rose Garden’s upper-level seating was not needed. The event began with the team warming up as people shuffled into their seats, and then a team interview before the scrimmage helped the fans to get a feel for their new team. Players were welcomed with cheers, and almost all got huge rounds of applause from the crowd. It was obvious that there were mixed feelings toward some, though.

While Brandon Roy received the largest ovation of the evening, guard Rudy Fernandez—who, during the offseason, expressed interest in leaving the Blazers because he was unhappy with his playing time and the NBA in general—was showered with a large mix of both boos and cheers during his interview. The cheers seemed to be good enough for him though, and he generally appeared happy to be there.

After the team had been introduced and players had a chance to address the fans, more warm-ups and drills came, which, for this basketball fan, was comforting to see. Warm up for as long as you need to, Blazers—the last thing the team needs is another injury before the start of preseason play. The warm-ups took up a good portion of the night, but were interesting nonetheless, as players’ footwork and dribbling skills were put to the test.  

When the five-on-five scrimmage started, the Blazers were split up into black and white squads. The white team was primarily composed of bench players and rookies, while the black squad featured the Blazers’ likely starters. It seemed on paper that it would be a walk in the park for the black squad, but the absence of all three starting centers revealed weaknesses in the middle and took away from the black squad’s rebounding.

Marcus Camby, last year’s much-needed midseason acquisition, sat out with a mild groin injury. The audience was informed that his injury is nothing serious, and that the team was merely being cautious.

The game consisted of four 10-minute quarters (rather than the NBA-standard 12 minutes), and showed off the incredible talent of the lesser-known players. While Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 15 and 12 points, respectively, Portland’s newest Blazer outplayed both.

Wesley Matthews, the man who gave the Blazers headaches last year and who became a large part of the Utah Jazz’s recent success, won MVP of the night by finishing with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. In addition, Matthews went 3 for 4 from behind the 3-point arc.

While it was difficult to watch Matthews perform well with the Jazz last year, it is comforting to know he is now on Rip City’s side. And though he may end up as Brandon Roy’s backup this season, he still had an impressive performance on Friday.

Jerryd Bayless also had an impressive night for the white squad, and finished with 12 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Rookies also had their time to shine Friday night, but not without having to go through innocent team hazing first. As the first half came to a close, rather than heading to the locker room, the rookies were called to the center of the court. Their embarrassment was apparent as Aldridge requested that the music start and they began dancing for the crowd.

Rookies Elliot Williams, Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson all showed their moves, and it was terrible—but entertaining nonetheless. Their dancing was a good showing as to why they are meant to play basketball.

In the end, the white squad, which was thought to be the “bench” team, ended up with a 58-54 victory over the black team. Much of the credit can be given to Matthews, but the team as a whole showed good signs for the year to come. While the question marks remain on when Oden and Przybilla will return, the team in the meantime has plenty of weapons to turn to.