Back in 1977, I didn’t know much about Portland. I lived in Chicago and I liked basketball and watched the Trail Blazers win the NBA championship on television. Boy, they were fun to watch. They were a small-market, rather funky underdog team, with over-the-top vigor and enthusiasm. That team quickly won me over.
But it was the town that captured my heart. Never had I experienced eagerness, devotion and oomph like I observed from the people in Portland. The broadcast networks pictured tons of fans at the dressed-up Memorial Coliseum, but also filling movie theaters that were showing the games. There were impromptu parades in the streets, special banners flying from libraries, porches and City Hall and home-made good luck signs everywhere.
I thought: Wow! That’s the kind of place I’d like to move to! So, I did. I moved to Portland and have never regretted it.
Even during these more challenging times, I remain loyal and in love with our smallish-market, creative, unique and often weird city and team. Portland remains rare, eager and inventive.
But if the Blazers left, most of us would also be over-the-top broken hearted, (“Would the NBA really let a new owner move the Blazers out of Portland?” May 14).
Much of the essence of that team brings out the best in us. Please stay. The morning before I wrote this, I was lucky to attend an Oregon Symphony rehearsal of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It was great. But I realized also that I’ll never give up singing our Rip City Rhapsody.
Pam Williams, Portland
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