let's talk about local boys

Here’s one of the big problems in sports: do you want to like your team, or do you want them to win?

Of course the answer is that you want both of those things. But sometimes it seems impossible for teams to have it all.

Take the Blazers—after the disastrous Jailblazers era, the team has taken to acquiring “character players.” Nice guys, preferably with local connections. Brandon Roy is from Washington. Ime Udoka grew up in Portland. They recently traded for Fred Jones, who went to school here in Eugene. [edit: my sources note that Dan Dickau and Martell Webster are from the northwest as well].

Just because these players are local doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. Udoka has been one of the more consistent players for the Blazers this season. And he can play defense! I hear Fred Jones can also play defense, and let me tell you, that’s something I’d love to see more of on this team. And Brandon Roy is a playmaker. He may be a rookie, but I think he can help lead this team.

But the question remains: could the Blazers be more effective if they weren’t so concerned about character? The Pistons, who have been extremely successful the last couple years, have been an example of a team full of jerks that does well for itself.

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I feel very strongly that storylines are important to sports. And that means you need two things—you need characters and you need conflict. That’s why I can’t always take stat guys completely seriously when they breakdown and analyze the numbers. We have a completely different point of view, a completely different way of looking at the games in front of us.

However, just because you need characters doesn’t mean they need to be good. Antiheros can have great stories. But the stories I like the best are the classics: The underdog beats huge odds. The good guys win. The person no one expected to succeed becomes a hero. How else could I cheer for teams from the northwest unless I loved watching the underappreciated struggle for respect?

Getting character guys definitely helps draw my attention. And I do like watching local boys succeed. There was nothing sweeter than watching the OSU Beavers baseball team become national champions, partly because nearly all the players were Oregonians. They represented an entire state. And that makes the story better, stronger, and more satisfying.

If you ask me, the Blazers can keep adding local boys. I just hope that they can be characters in a triumphant script, rather than a bittersweet tragedy.