It’s a new year, which means it’s time for another Casual Camera post and this one is kind of an irregular one.
I am generally not one for posting photos of me on the internet when doing something. I think the thing is the interesting part, not me being there. But when your buddy Bagheera calls you up at exactly 5:38 PM asking if you want to come along for a Portland Trail Blazers season ticket holder event, you gotta take the call.1
A chance to meet Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan? I mean, are you kidding me? That’s an automatic yes from me. And while not everyone was there, I did have a chance to meet the aforementioned three, among others.
I even had a chance to take another long gander through the new OMSI exhibit, Exquisite Creatures Revealed, an art display of naturalist art created and curated by Charles Marley. Imagine canvases and canvases of carefully consorted creatures of equally reptilian, avian, crustacean and insectoid origin.
Seems morbid right? But the introduction video does explain that all of the animals die of natural causes in captivity. They’re not harvested; they’re collected and preserved and then presented with no alterations to their natural colours.
And, damn, do they pop. Just some absolutely stunning arrangements and presentation of the natural beauty of macaws, butterflies, beetles, seashells, lizards, frogs, crabs. You name it, he’s probably placed it somewhere in the sweeping curve of the composition.
Perhaps my particular favorite was the lighting on a Japanese spider crab that cast the crustacean’s form into a spidery shadow. Or maybe it was the twisting bonsai stoic and sitting atop a tortoise shell. In the end, I think just immensely enjoyed the simple red-and-black tones of a small lizard; for every piece in the gallery attempting to stun, that lizard stayed on message: this was Trail Blazers night.
At the end of the first level of the exhibit, Bagheera and I met Scoot Henderson and Duop Reath, taking wingspan measurements. When they measured Bagheera, his came out to 6’8”. Oddly enough, so was mine. Something tells me the tape measure was rigged, but I’m complaining—I’ll list it in my Hinge profile.
Afterwards, Bagheera had to attend to his other invitees and their kiddos while I ran around like a maniac, trying to find as many Blazers as possible to take pictures with. Walking into the main atrium, I crossed by Anfernee Simons and Rayan Rupert. They looked pretty busy en route to somewhere, but I managed to talk with Rupert using some broken French. Unfortunately my nervousness got the best of me. However, I managed to tell him that I look forward to seeing him more on the court.
After that I found Donovan Clingan by the entrance. It wasn’t hard; he’s a mountain of a man and when I asked him if he was ever going to grow out the mountain man beard he was coy. Saying it does grow, but that he doesn’t like it. Poor kid, eventually he’s gonna wake up one day, look at the razor and just say “screw it.” It happens to every one.
It’s happening to me right now.
After that, I turned around to find Toumani Camara giving out puzzles at a booth near the Turbine Room. Having settled myself, I was able to converse more freely with Toumani. The normal stuff:
« oui, je parle français, » et « j’ai parlé depuis j’avais treize ans, » et « j’aime vous regarder sur le court, » et « bonne chance pour la reste de la saison. »
“Yes, I speak French,” and “I’ve been speaking since I was thirteen,” and “I love watching you on the court” and “good luck for the rest of the season.”
Any chance to use my French. I caught up with Bagheera and the rest of the kids gang. We chatted, picked up some more puzzles and then decided it was time to move back into picture mode. Going to an auditorium by the planetarium, we found Shaedon Sharpe, Jabari Walker, Matisse Thybulle, Kris Murray and Mike Holton.
We spent the most time with Holton, who let us in on the intricacies of being on both the radio and TV broadcast teams, his favorite teammates (Duckworth and Kersey), what Adelman and Schuler were like as coaches and why the Jazz seemed to have the Blazers’ number in 1988 (Malone was just a bully down low). In another life, Holton could have been a comedian.
Not wanting to take up all of his time, we let other fans take pictures, do all that stuff and moved on to Shaedon Sharpe. When I finally reached the man, I asked a burning question: which of the nicknames did he most enjoy?
The answer was Mac n’ Cheese and yes, he did see this video from /u/BoneApple_T, and yes he did love it.
After talking with Jabari Walker and Matisse Thybulle and Kris Murray, Bagheera and I said goodbye to the parent invitees and kiddos and made one last stop: the championship trophy. It still has that luster. It still looks good.
Did you know it’s the inaugural Larry O’Brien? That’s right, Portland won the first ever Larry O’Brien trophy. And much like how the NFL operates on Super Bowls, the NBA should be operating on Larry O’Briens. That’s what counts now; the LOB heralded a whole new era of basketball with the NBA-ABA merger, the advent of the three-point line and the rise of the NBA as the second-largest professional sports league in America.
Okay maybe that last point is a bit dubious, but the original championship cup, the Walter A. Brown trophy, was a loaner from the National Hockey League. It represented a smaller league that comprised mostly of eight teams and an era that seems almost prehistoric. It’s just not the same.
Also, title contenders should be called LOB threats. I mean, come on, it’s right there!
Bagheera conceded every point; which doesn’t strengthen the argument, but it did balloon my ego. Which means I’m well prepared for it to pop next time I watch the Blazers play in a season that’s more about ping-pong percentages than LOB threats.
Oh mercy, mercy, Jerome Kersey. Would you look at that: over 1000 words for what should have been a simple recounting of a surprise visit and photo session with the Portland Trail Blazers. I hope you enjoyed it!
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1 Apologies in advance for the photographs quality—I didn’t know if I could bring my actual camera.
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