Getting his due

I think my friend Jimmy said it best in an email to me and Nat, "that's right-- respect for roy". Brandon Roy made it to the All Star team at an insanely crowded position in the Western Conference. I mean the starters are Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson, then of course CP3 with the season he's having, and Steve Nash, arguably the best true PG in the league are going to get in. After that however, you have Baron Davis, who is having a stellar year, Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Manu "Skunk-Stripe-Balding-Pattern" Ginobli, and a slew of other forwards and centers as depicted here. Which I mention the other positions, because for the reserves, coaches pick 2 guards, 2 forwards, one center, and 2 wild cards. Roy was a wild card along with New Orleans PF David West. So of all the deserving players in the NBA's Western Conference, why Roy?

If you look at Roy's year, the story cannot be told by stats alone, he is averaging 19.3 points per game, 5.6 assists per game, and 4.5 rebounds per game, good numbers sure, but not the greatest. And that is one reason I think this story is so important. Roy didn't get in based on his numbers alone, John Canzano wrote about intagibles in a column I linked to below, and he was right. Roy is the leader of the Blazers, in the locker room and on the court. He plays the game with such respect, that any time he receives any honor, he deflects credit to things like his coach, his teammates, or his desire to give his team a chance to win. Truly unselfish you can just tell he doesn't care about stats, he cares about making his team better. And he does make his team better but not for the obvious reasons, not only will he take a game over when he has to, but he can also recognize when someone else on the team has the hot hand and lets them do it instead.

Early in games, you might see him hit a couple of shots, but then he starts to defer to his teammates, I think this is because he wants to know who is going to help him on any given night, he wants to see which teammates are on and which ones are off. He also does it because he wants his team to win just as that, a team. Now Blazer fans have seen Roy take games over when it mattered most (see the Atlanta victory last week), but I think almost as important is that we have seen Roy pass to teammates that were 'on' in clutch moments many times as well. He is clutch in every sense of the word, he has an uncanny ability to find the open man, and the silent confidence to trust him as well. This is a rare quality, and one that I think has propelled him to new heights in the NBA.

Yet the most endearing quality of Brandon Roy is something we do not see very often in the NBA. He is humble. He is also becoming a superstar. And these are two qualities rarely, if ever, seen in professional sports. He never seems to put himself above anybody, coach, player, anybody. He accepts blame, takes responsibility for his actions, good or bad, and always has praise for his coaches and teammates. He doesn't seem to have an ego, just seems like a very down to earth guy, and one who respects, the NBA, the game of basketball, his coaches, his teammates, his town, and his fans, these are who Brandon always gives credit to. Because of this I will tell Brandon, it is time for you to get the credit you deserve Brandon, you have earned this All Star berth, not just by how well you play basketball, but also by the kind of person, player, and teammate you are, soak it up and enjoy it, because you are our superstar, because of your play, but more so because of your person. As long as you hold this town up, we will hold you up. Finally a class act in sports, and of all places, he landed in Portland, the one city that needed him the most.