Sebastian Telfair

My beloved Portland Blazers are in the midst of rebuilding. According to almost anyone, there is little reason for hope--everyone is so preoccupied with how bad the team is this year.

But me? When it comes to this team, I'm a fan. So I believe. And the reason I believe is because they really are building for the future. An NBA team can only have 15 players at any given time, and Portland currently has six--Sebastian Telfair, Travis Outlaw, Zach Randolph, Darius Miles, Viktor Khyrapa, and Sergei Monia--who should all be good in three or four years. We will be getting another high lottery pick this June. If we keep nurturing this nucleus and adding to it when the right characters come along for the right price, we'll be fine.

In the meantime, I have stopped even reading the articles about the players who aren't part of teh franchise's future, preferring instead to devour any articles about those young ones. One of the most in-depth analyses I have ever seen of any of these players comes from famed coach Phil Jackson's buddy Charley Rosen. It's about Telfair, the point guard of our future, who was at high school in Brooklyn a year ago.

See you at the Rose Garden in 2008.