As we got older and my sister and I became more invloved in school activities, summer league sports, and our own social schedules, we had little use for the boat. Finally, my dad put out an ad in the Oregonian (this was before craigslist) and sold the boat. He made noe profit, actually ended up losing money in the process.

This relates to you comment in that, what most fans don’t get is that these franchises, to their wealthy owners, are incredibly expensive toys. Not a means of making money.

Whatever you need to do, that is deemed ethical and within the rules of the organization in which you are operating, must be done to obtain said results.

As far as the comments made by Batumn’s agent, most of us in Portland believe it is just him trying to coerce the Blazers into making a premature commitment in favor of his client, nothing more. Dwight Jaynes is the only person in Portland who I have read that supports his claims as probable. Even Batum himself has refuted the statements on twitter.

At the end of the day, in the NBA, you are either moving toward or away from a championship. The Blazers seem to be doing everything they can to get back into contention as soon as possible, even if that means simultaneously depolying conflicting strategies (which actually makes sense as they are on the opposite side of the table in each situation).

Good luck to you, Pacers fans. I know one thing, at the end of the Hibbert negotiation, one side is going to be left losing out on a great young player and, by all accounts, young man.

Game on.