2002-The Portland Jailblazers: “We’re not really going to worry about what the hell [the fans] think about us. They really don’t matter to us. They can boo us every day, but they’re still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street. That’s why they’re fans and we’re NBA players.”
by KrispyBeaverBoy
4 Comments
It was 20 years ago…who cares. Honestly, this fan base destroyed them over marijuana…outside Ruben Patterson…now it’s legal in Oregon and the NBA doesn’t test for it. That team was so talented…honestly the most all around talented team in the team’s history and all this fan base and media did locally was discredit them
This is likely how many pro athletes feel honestly, they just don’t have the stones to say it publicly. If it weren’t for all the mandatory media and fan engagement, how many actually would do any of it.
Truly my favorite era of Blazers basketball. Warts and all.
[Thought I’d add that Bonzi Wells apologized when he was interviewed in a November 2009 Oregonian article:](https://www.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/11/trail_blazers_top_40_no_35_bon.html)
“As a whole, Portland was the best time of my life,” Wells, 33, said from his home in Muncie, Ind. “I owe everything to that organization and the fans there. Tell Portland I want to apologize for the bad, the way things went down as a whole. And that’s from my heart.”