Sports

New Hat? or Old Tricks? Portland Timbers 2017 Preview

Last years’ end state was horrible; the Portland Timbers, returning MLS Champions, missed the playoffs.  Not good; especially when 60% of  the teams in your Conference make the playoffs. Clearly changes needed to be made. Notable midfield additions include David Guzman, Sebastian Blanco, and the return of Dairon Asprilla. On the defensive side, where the Timbers had […]

Gluck – Making the Most of the Much Maligned Melano

For most, the hot topic/question for the Timbers is… What to do about Luca?   For me, it’s certainly a short-term concern, but I’d submit there’s a longer term question that still needs to be answered that far outweighs what to do about Luca. To explain, if you will. The Timbers have seen the trees […]

Defense First ? Timbers to Ride the Rapids?

Portland Timbers travel to Colorado for the first time this year and the challenge for both teams is finding the right balance between attacking and defending. In their last league home game the Timbers struggled in the first half – not unlike their US Open Cup match as well. If not for an untimely hand-ball by David […]

It’s been real

My time at The Columbian is coming to a close but I know we were always meant to be, even if our moment together was fleeting. Life is like that. A Tom Vogt article from The Columbian about my family cheering on the Venezuelan basketball team in the 1992 Tournament of the Americas hung in […]

Blazers hire ESPN Radio’s Kevin Calabro as television play-by-play announcer

The rumors have been confirmed: the Portland Trail Blazers are bringing in the NBA’s national radio voice into the both for all 82 games next season. Kevin Calabro is the new Blazers play-by-play man for the foreseeable future. Calabro, who was the Seattle Supersonics play-by-play man for 21 seasons until the team moved to Oklahoma […]

Timbers Shake Quakes Again!

In perhaps their best team performance all year the Portland Timbers defeated the San Jose Earthquakes, in the fourth round of the US Open Cup, at Providence Park last night 2 – nil. I don’t offer that lightly – the Timbers have struggled on both sides of the ball this year – not only in finishing chances […]

Blazers overhaul broadcast crew: Mike Barrett, Antonio Harvey and Mike Rice out

The Portland Trail Blazers’ broadcast crew is undergoing a major overhaul and several faces who were synonymous with the organization will no longer be there. The team announced Wednesday that television duo Mike Rice and Mike Barrett, as well as radio analyst Antonio Harvey will not be with the team next season. A national search […]

Bulls vs. Blazers NBA Podcast: Is Kevin Love a TJ Maxx player?

The NBA Finals live to see another day. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both scored 41 points and King James added 16 rebounds and seven assists to boot. SOMEBODY CALL STEPHEN A!!!!! LeBron would have had a triple-double had budding TJ Maxx Player Kevin Love been able to knock down a shot. Where are we with […]

Dame DOLLA: Shook Ones Pt. II Freestyle feat. V.I.P.

It’s a Monday and it’s the summer, which can only mean one thing on this blog: Damian Lillard dropping new music. His latest #MusicMonday release is a freestyle over Mobb Deep’s classic “Shook Ones Pt. II.” featuring V.I.P.. Lillard is in Taipei as part of his adidas “Take on Summer” tour but he continues bringing the […]

Bulls vs. Blazers NBA Podcast: The High Road

This is the last week that I will writing on this blog, as you may have heard. However, The Network will live on beyond the confines of this space. The people need the content. The Real Lakers of Los Angeles are out here making waves and the Golden State Warriors, their parents and spouses, are […]

Trail Mix: Lillard tours China, Sabonis story gets a reboot

Damian Lillard is always a busy man. Not a month after playing his final playoff game, he’s been touring in China with adidas. Here you can see him coaching up some young Chinese hoopers as part of the adidas “Take On Summer” tour. Brand aware as always, Lillard is rocking his PDX Carpet D Lillard […]

Trail Mix: Lillard’s USA Basketball chances get a boost

The odds that the new Dame DOLLA album will include some samba beats just got better. It looks like Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard will be spending some time in Brazil this summer, now that Golden State’s Stephen Curry will not participate in the upcoming 2016 Olympics. Curry suffered a knee injury in the […]

Podcast: RealGM Radio Blazers offseason preview with Danny Leroux

As weird as it may seem, we are now less than a month away from a pivotal time for the Portland Trail Blazers. Free agency begins July 1 and before that we have the NBA draft, where the Blazers could potentially sneak into the draft, although they currently don’t own a draft pick. Their offseason […]

Trail Mix: Blazers rise in ESPN’s future power rankings

We are a mere handful of hours away from Game 1 of the NBA Finals as the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will battle for the second season in a row. Stephen Curry and the 73-win Warriors go up against LeBron James, trying to get one for #TheLand. My podcast co-host Sean Highkin and […]

Portland slow out of the gate again!

When week three of Major League Soccer closed the Portland Timbers were 14th worst in overall team performance – that has changed – but not for the better! Portland are now 16th worst in overall team performance – taking into account how well (and how well their opponent’s) possess, pass, penetrate, create, and score goals. […]

Dealing without Darlington

There’s no question the pain of losing Darlington Nagbe, for us supporters, is nowhere near the physical pain Nagbe experienced as a result of that brutal tackle by Nigel de Jong! I get it and the discipline handed out by MLS will come nowhere near what it should be – however long Darlington is out […]

Portland Timbers – Is it too early to worry?

Some pundits have offered that it’s probably to early to worry; I completely disagree. At no point in the last four years of tracking possession with purpose have the Timbers been so low on this Index: Some may scoff at the reference to my Index, so early in the season, but in my most recent […]

US Men’s National Team Mauls the Minnow Guatemala 4-nil

This should have been the repeat headline from last week – and thankfully the last week headline wasn’t a repeat this week! I’ll be the first (probably 100th though) person to congratulate the players on their performance yesterday – well done lads! Now the grist – with the caveat “I’m still frustrated”!  It’s my view […]

Moneyball 2 – Soccer Statistics – Taking it to the next level

Probably the biggest leader in soccer analytics (Prozone Sports) have released two products in the last year, or so, that should begin to change the landscape of soccer statistics. I applaud their actions but I’m still not convinced they scratch the right itch, or least my question; what are the best statistics available to better understand […]

Forward into the Past – Portland Timbers 2016

Portland Timbers open the season defending their MLS Cup this weekend and I can't even begin to imagine the atmosphere we'll witness. For those local to Portland - what a day […]

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