Fans join fest to see Blazers

PORTLAND — LaMarcus Aldridge said he could not believe the number of fans he watched pouring into the Rose Garden on Friday night.

Normally the Portland Trail Blazers’ Fan Fest is a low-key event — a few thousand people, a light scrimmage, some autographs and loose fun to ease into the season. But with the anticipation brought about by Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez and a possible playoff run, the event became much bigger this year than players expected.

A Fan Fest record crowd of 11,021 packed the Rose Garden’s lower bowl and spilled into the upper-deck.

Fans roared when Oden, Fernandez and Brandon Roy were introduced, and proved that the level of anticipation for this season is higher than the Blazers have seen in several years.

“It was great,” said Aldridge, who scored a game-high 25 points in the 40-minute scrimmage. “Our fans are behind us again. I think they feel like we have a lot of good guys, and I think we gave them a preview of the season.”

In the case of Fernandez, it provided a long-awaited glimpse of what is to come.

Billed as a skilled offensive weapon, Fernandez did not disappoint, scoring 18 points in the scrimmage while hitting four 3-pointers — a performance that Blazers coach Nate McMillan said was better than he anticipated because the
6-foot-6 guard is still adjusting to the distance of the NBA 3-point line.

But Fernandez drew the most attention with a wrap-around behind-the-back pass to Travis Outlaw early in the first of two 20-minute halves.

The pass, delivered on a fast break, hit Outlaw with pinpoint precision — though Outlaw failed to complete the play — and showed why players have discovered that Fernandez’s passing ability is better than they expected.

“That’s his game. I think he threads the needle,” Aldridge said. “Throughout training camp he’s been more trying to distribute than finding his shot. Coach has had to tell him to shoot it more.”

What may have surprised fans most was the play of Oden, who looked rusty in his first game in front of crowd since last year’s summer league.

He became winded early in the first half and had few highlights to show for his Blazers introduction. He finished with five points, throwing down dunks on his two field goals, and added two rebounds and a block.

“Believe me, when I found out about Fan Fest, I was a little nervous,” Oden said. “But I got it out of the way, and it was good.”

In fact, Blazers coach Nate McMillan said getting that public introduction out of the way was something Oden needed. After spending the past 13 months recovering from microfracture knee surgery — and carrying more hype into a season than any Blazer in recent memory — McMillan said Oden needed a mellow game to “break the ice.”

“He hasn’t played in over a year,” McMillan said. “His first time playing in front of a home crowd, and everybody’s excited to see him play, the anticipation of Greg Oden taking the floor. I think he needed this in this type of atmosphere to just relax. And I thought he came out and looked pretty relaxed tonight.”