I have been a Blazer fan since 1969 when they named the team cared.

I remember at age 10 walking to the Memorial Coliseum to see the first year, Blazers in 1970. . .not too many fans then.

remember the excitement of the summer of 1976 when the ABA merged with the NBA and the buzz about how the Blazers brought in a couple of ABA players via the draft... to this day I still think the dumbest thing the Blazers did was get rid of Moses Malone and not the Sam Bowie draft. Had the Blazers had Malone. When Walton went down as he often did. . .the Blazers would have no doubt won several championships in succession a blazer dynasty mssed.

I couldn't afford season tickets, even back then, but my cousin had season tickets and we figured out a way for me to sneak in to Blazer games. . .I remember waiting in huge long lines that wound around the Coliseum and out the door into the parking lot! People camping out... I was at the game in the MC. When Walton drove from the top of the key and slammed it on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. To this day, I have never been in an arena that got as loud as that moment. I saw two of the 1977 NBA finals games against the 76ers. But I couldn't sneak in to game six and wound up watching it on a primitive big-screen at Meir & Frank at the Lloyd Center along with about 200 other people. So that's where I saw the Blazers win the title!

I'm hoping with the addition of these players that there will be a great thing developing and would say certainly, the buzz around this team exceeds that 1976 Summer!

I want to be the first to predict that there is a good chance the Trail Blazers will go to the NBA finals. This year. Yes, this year. This would not be unprecedented, as the Milwaukee Bucks with the addition of new Lew Alcindor won it all in his rookie year. Greg Oden could do it for the Blazers.

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