Philosophical question: Is it better to be the guy who has an endless series of disappointing first dates, or the guy who can’t get a phone number?
Is it better to persistently have your hopes raised and then dashed, or simply to have no hope at all?
The relevance of all this might be unapparent — until you realize that we’re talking about the Trail Blazers.
Because Portland treats first-round playoff defeats as though they are a birthright. The latest, a six-game loss to Dallas, was simply another in a long string of postseason shortfalls.
Consider: The Blazers haven’t won a playoff series in 11 years, despite making the postseason six times during that span. Starting with 1978, they have lost their opening series 21 times, by far the most of any NBA team. Over that time, Portland is 14-28 in playoff series.
That can’t be bad, can it? Surely it’s better to have loved and ultimately lost then never to have loved at all, isn’t it? Certainly there’s something to be said for supporting a team that at least makes it to the playoffs, isn’t there?
I mean, it beats being a Clippers fan. Doesn’t it?
“I don’t see a negative consequence,” said Dr. Bob Duff, a professor of sociology at the University of Portland who teaches a class in Sociology of Sport. “Following a losing team is really problematic, a team that doesn’t have hope. The Blazers at least give their fans some hope.”
That, perhaps, is the best that can be said for the Blazers. They give their fans hope — even if they eventually crush that hope with a steamroller and douse it with gasoline and light it on fire and freeze the ashes with liquid nitrogen.
Even that, apparently, is something positive.
“In an abstract way, it kind of builds community,” Dr. Duff said. “There’s a community that’s built on that shared sadness. For me, the issue is building connections, and this is one way. That’s an issue in building a happier life — building these connections and building that sense of community.”
And so Blazer fans continue to bend over and say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”
There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing inherently masochistic about cheering for a team that eventually breaks your heart. And as Portland lost to Dallas in this year’s first round, the crowd at the Rose Garden clearly was the Blazers’ MVP.
“I’ll tell you this … walking into this place and playing a playoff game is no fun,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “This is the loudest place I’ve ever been, and I’ve been in a lot of places in 27 years.”
The atmosphere at the Rose Garden was electric for all three home games against Dallas. And it’s impossible to quantify just how important the fans were to the Blazers’ playoff hopes.
In the end, it wasn’t enough. But there’s no question that the crowd was Portland’s most consistent weapon throughout the series.
We could delve into the psychology behind that, into the fact that the people of this area are generally good-natured and forgiving, into the fact that the Blazers are the only game in town and therefore engender uncommon loyalty. But we’ll leave that for somebody else’s Master’s thesis.
For now, it’s enough to appreciate the culture that envelops the Blazers and their fans. And it’s enough to understand that a series of disappointing dates are better than no dates at all.
