neverbeencool

So here we are, not even a full week into the Justin Bikes to Work extravaganza, and already I’ve pussed out twice.  Weak.

Yesterday, I woke up pretty sore and stiff, so I thought that I’d be better off skipping the day and giving my weary and out-of-shape muscles a rest.  Plus my front brakes started acting wonky the day before and I figured I should probably fix those before making another Interstate Bridge/Death Star attack run.

And today?  Well, today, Portland looks like this:

Pretty, huh?  Looks like a great day for a little 10 mile bike stroll?  Well, yeah.  It does.  Now.  But the weather Gods plan on cranking things up to about 90ish, which means that, by the time I’m supposed to head home, Portland will look something like this:

See?  Not good biking weather, at least not for those of us with Northern blood.  I did fix my brakes yesterday, though, so I’ll have to find a nice, pleasant little route to try tomorrow morning before the Mrs. and I go see Avenue Q.  Can’t go too many days without getting on there lest I end up back where I started.

And speaking of blazing hot things in Portland…

NBA draft was yesterday, and I have a confession to make.  For a few hours last night, until I read about some of the moves they made after I turned off the TV, I doubted Kevin Pritchard.

Blasphemy, I tells ya.

For those of you who aren’t NBA fans (or at least don’t follow the Blazers), Pritchard’s the Portland General Manager who’s spent the last few years in Portland making other NBA GMs look like fucktards.  There’s an entry in Urban Dictionary for it:  Pritchslap.

The guy is absolutely, 100%, real-deal brilliant with NBA personnel.  And backed by Paul Allen’s very deep pockets, he and his staff have done an amazing job breaking away from our Jail Blazer image of the last decade and building a team that has the potential to compete (and do so with classy, talented men) for years to come.

But during the second round of the draft, Pritchard picked up Memphis’s Joey Dorsey, a guy described as having “a mean streak” by the ESPN people covering the draft and, more importantly, with a history of trash-talking Portland’s Big Man Messiah, Greg Oden.  Last year, before Memphis met Oden’s Ohio State team, Dorsery called out Oden as “a lot overrated” and had a reputation as a talker in general (”That’s just Joey,” they say…).

Later, they snatched up Mike Taylor from the D-League with the 55th pick.  Don’t know much about him, but when the ESPN posse mentioned that he’d been kicked off his Iowa State basketball team before using all his elligibility, I figured this wasn’t the kind of guy you’d want on a team still trying to clear up its reputation and win back its fans.  And, sure enough, I just found this article:

Iowa State dismissed suspended guard Mike Taylor, the Cyclones’ leading scorer last season, after a series of legal troubles.

“Mike and I sat down at the beginning of the summer and clearly defined the expectations that he needed to meet in order to remain a member of this basketball team,” coach Greg McDermott said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, Mike fell short of the goals that were set for him.”

McDermott didn’t specify why he removed Taylor from the team.

Taylor, who was suspended from the team following an incident in March, was charged with a vehicle registration violation on June 18, according to Story County court records. He was found guilty Monday, and fined $69.80 in fines and court costs.

It was Taylor’s third brush with authorities this year.

Taylor was arrested in March and charged with vandalizing an on-campus apartment building. Taylor pleaded guilty on June 4 to fifth-degree criminal mischief.

He was cited in April for shoplifting a bottle of cold medicine from an Ames convenience store. He pleaded guilty to a charge of fifth-degree theft.

Granted, none of those charges are especially egregious, at least not by Jail Blazer standards, but the team just doesn’t need another knucklehead in the locker room.

And so I went to sleep last night worried that the Blazers were returning to form.

Then, this morning, the birds sand, the angels trumpted…  Dorsey and Taylor were no longer Blazers.

Seems that, shortly after I headed upstairs, Pritchard dealt both players for future draft picks and the rights to Nicolas Batum, a 6′8″ small forward from France.

And one with, as far as I can see, no criminal record.

So I’m sorry, Pritch, for doubting you even for a moment.  Won’t happen again (especially if you bring home some veteran leadership…).