Media Day Re-Thoughts

Hmm.

(First off, excellent coverage by the media yesterday. BE killed it with the tweets and posts. Casey Holdahl was a beast with the video chats. Oregonian people were on point. (PS, go read Quick’s meaty ‘Behind the Blazers Locker Room Door‘ article.))

Media day can be a tricky beast. It can’t be denied that there is a certain excitement attached with it. That’s just natural when you no longer have to watch the WNBA to get your basketball fix. Media day is when you finally are getting some basketball related news. It makes it easy to read everything like a kid on Christmas and to want to soak everything up. (Be honest, tell me you didn’t run to HoopsHype like a little kid this morning). I’ll admit after the (slow) off-season it’s refreshing to finally hear from the players and to see their opinions and mindsets. Also there is always the chance that some of the questions you’ve had in your brain all off-season get answered. It would be easy to get caught up in that excitement and sit here and dissect every little thing that was said and use that to make judgments. On the flip side…it’s the first day before training camp. Ultimately, the majority of the time what’s said today will mean nothing by October 27th. And sometimes it will mean nothing by the middle of the pre-season. Go to every NBA team’s coverage and you’re going to get a warm positive vibe. It’s just how these articles kind of go around these times. There’s a certain optimism around the NBA at this time of year that is both beautiful and sickening at the same time. I mean honestly, read this article about the Kings and tell me you didn’t think at one point “Hey, they might not be so bad”. Training camp stories are the romantic comedies of NBA coverage.

(Sidenote: That is unless you have a malcontent…every team has a malcontent. Used to be able to count on Kobe, now we turn to the Warriors for entertainment. Thank you Monta and Stephen Jackson, thank you very much.)

Anyways, getting back on track. It’s easy to fall in love with the excitement of it all. That ‘easy to fall in love’ part is why I’ve avoided Joe Freeman’s article on Greg Oden like it’s a Kardashian. As Ben over at Blazer’s Edge put it, Freeman literally says everything a Blazer fan would want to hear about Oden at this point. I mean honestly that just sounds like more of a tease than a stuck up, prude 16 year old. I don’t need to read it all over again and get my hopes up. I need to see it. However for those who missed out…Here’s what I took from yesterday.

Greg Oden’s all happy and bubbly and funny again. And he wants to start. And he wants to be an All-Star. And he loves Joel Pryzbilla. Somebody stop me.
Everyone loves Juwan Howard. Seriously, everyone.
Andre Miller hates Media Day.
Nic Batum wants to start, Martell Webster wants to finish, Travis Outlaw has an odd-fro and he’s kind of emo now.
Andre Miller really hates Media Day.
Nate knows everyone needs to buy in for this to work.
Brandon Roy is really good and junk.

Did I miss anything? Tell me if I did because I think I basically hit every corner. Maybe I’m a robot but I’m just not going to get the world’s biggest reaction over something that happened on media day.

Except for this one thing. One story that I do believe is being overblown is this whole B-Roy/Blake/Andre Miller mini-saga that some people built from Quick’s piece. I almost really reacted to it, but it’s media day. You have to realize it simply is not a big deal at this point. Could it become a story? Possibly. Could it be erased by Saturday? Also possible. Anyone who expects Roy to be comfortable with Andre Miller based on some pickup basketball games is silly. Especially when he has a guy in Blake who he’s more comfortable with playing based on their skill-sets and the amount of time they’ve played together. This is what training camp and the pre-season are for. Just be happy we have players who can be honest like that. Every team has to integrate new pieces. Breathe, just breathe.