Henry Abbot just posted a nice little story about the world beginning to believe the Blazers are less the lucky hosts of the much-desired shot fairy and more just a solid basketball team. I think we're all beginning to believe. Last night was a great gutsy win for this team. and 15 wins in the last 16 games sounds sooooo nice.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-29-9/Ain-t-No-Fairy.html

There is an article about Outlaw on the front page of Yahoo's NBA page:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AiW.7siIHcs5APdp5jGsm4a8vLYF?slug=aw-outlaw121807&prov=yho o&type=lgns

It's funny how a little 8 game winning streak can get you some national media attention.

maybe if we add 8 more reasons to the streak Outlaw can get people to put his real photo up and remember his name.

The Blazers win streak, mostly against playoff teams, is getting us some much deserved respect. With this mornings newest Power Rankings by Stein at ESPN, the Blazers come in at #10. 10!, in the whole NBA. Last week we were 20, and the week before I think we were around 25. That's some serious moving up. It's always fun to watch the national media figure out something we've known for awhile. ;)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking

There are four audio clips of Sergio at Media Day over at the Oregonian, http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2007/10/listen_up_2.html.

On thing that is clear right off the bat is that his english has improved--a remarkable improvement in understanding it and a decent but not spectacular improvement in speaking. At some point the interviewers even compliment him on his improved english skills.

The other info from the interviews that i found interesting is he doesn't seem at all deterred by the things Nate has said, and says his plan is to go in and play hard and earn a spot.

Also, when asked what parts of his game he wanted to work on, he said he wanted to improve all aspects,and  when pressed for details he said, in this order: 1) defense, 2) shooting, 3) less turnovers. from his lips to god's ears, i say! he definitely gave the right answer, let's hope he really does improve all that stuff.

Turns out there will be a NBA players vs. Yao and China's national team charity game on Sept. 14th in Beijing. Of particular interest for us Blazers fans is that Greg Oden will be part of the US team. Read about it here:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-27-130/Steve-Nash-and-Yao-Ming--Making-Something-Happen.html

I see this as great for two reasons: 1) Even before he's played a single NBA game, Oden has already gotten involved with a huge charity project and it shows what a great guy he is, and that he really is going to fit well in the new Blazer culture,  and 2) Regardless of the less-than-game-time level of intensity that will be played it will still be fun to see GO go up against Yao, and also will help him get a little experience against an NBA all-star center without the super-high expectations that will hound him even in pre-season games.

Tickets went on sale this morning, you can get them from http://www.unlvtickets.com/eventinfo.php?tag=e&eventId=34, and more specifically, http://ev2.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventList?groupCode=TMC&linkID=unlv

General Admission is $25, plus for two tickets I had an 'event charge' of $5.75 and then at checkout (with four tickets) there was a 'service charge' of $3.75 (crooks!).

They list a Courtside option in addition to the General Admission tickets for $75, but they are not available. Either all sold out or never really existed--I called their phone number and was told that none were available.

Tickets are good for all games on that day, at both venues.

I got tickets for the 14th and 15th, only games that are back to back, plus 15th is vs. Seattle, so in all likelihood it'll be a Durant vs. Oden showdown. woohoo!