Blazer Glassware is back and you can get Sharpe, Scoot or Clingan to hold a Portland beer in style. Or use them for cocktails or cider. Anything you put in the glass will be better than yet another rebuilding season of NBA basketball.
Blazing Glass
Rip City 2024
Part of the NBA pre-season for me is seeing who The Portland Trail Blazers have teamed up with for a Blazer beer. This time it is Rogue Ales & Spirits bringing out the Rip City IPA.
Gonna have to send my mom to one of the Rogue pubs to get me a can so that I can root on our youngsters as they hopefully take the first steps towards a future NBA title.
NBA Draft – Blazers Edition 2024
The first bit of business to unpack is that my beloved Blazers sent Malcom Brogdon, the 14th pick (which became ) and future picks (a first and a pair of seconds) to the Washington Wizards for 23 year old Deni Avdija. A tall shooting forward (yeah) coming off a real good year. This move is good in two ways as it lowers the wage bill and it frees up space for our large group of youngsters to get playing time as we essentially free up two roster spots.
Now with just one pick in the lottery, it was just a matter of who would fall to #7 and wasn’t a 6’9″ forward. That person was NCAA Champ and second UConn Husky off the board, Donovan Clingan. A 7’2″ center with a strong all around game that could be a real strong piece for the Blazers. Might be considered a safe pick but a good start.
The newly split draft continued on Thursday and Portland kicked the 34th pick down the road for future picks, then cashed out on the 40th pick and during the wild and confusing ride that was the 2nd round trade-a-thon, also cashed out on pick 52. I would have liked to see them pick up Jamal Shead from Houston or Cam Spencer from UConn for backcourt hustle but it was not to be and now we see if we can trim a few veteran players off so that all of our young-ins can get some court time.
I guess I will need to find a Connecticut beer for Clingan and Israeli beer for Avdija.
Blazers Re-Start and Re-Mix
The 2023/2024 season starts, for me, with the Portland Trailblazers and our three S’s (Simons, Sharpe and Scoot) vs the Los Angeles Clippers.
The pre-season finished at 1-3 with the only W coming against a team from New Zealand but that was to be expected with only two returning starters and an average age of just shy of 24. But this season should be fun for a few reasons:
- Expectations are low – no disappointment at failing Dame’s quest for a title
- Exciting talent – not only #3 pick Scoot Henderson but Shaedon Sharpe and Toumani Camara and new pick-ups DeAndre Ayton and Robert Williams
- Future picks – even if this season doesn’t show potential, the future just might.
- Fun rivalries – games against young teams like OKC and Chet and Spurs with Wemby should be the start of something new
Yes, this is not a beer-centric post but for years, I have kinda dreaded watching the Blazers knowing that the balance wasn’t right no matter the effort but now I can sit back and look for progress with a session beer or maybe a Widmer Hefeweizen and enjoy without getting tense. Plus, who knows, maybe Portland breweries are already concocting beers with Blazer themes for this new team.
A Podcast & A Beer – The Brief Case
It is NBA season and time for this beer blogger to root for my Portland Trailblazers, and to do so effectively I will be turning to this new podcast, The Brief Case…
These are bite sized, under twenty minute podcasts from long time Blazer writer Holdahl. It is a nice behind the scenes soundbite from players alongside some betting information which is a bit incongruous to me. The episodes that I have listened to thankfully do not veer in the rush to analyze each game as a momentous occasion that troubles some sports podcasts.
To pair with this podcast, I would recommend alighting upon a favorite brewery to match with your favorite team. Choose a starting line-up of core beers, then find a bench of five more beers and taste through them all to re-acquaint yourself with why that brewery is your favorite.
In the Rafters
NBA Season is fast approaching and as I fervently wish that my Trailblazers start strong one team in the Association has finished strong, the Boston Celtics (my Dad’s favorite team).
They also have a great beer partner in Jack’s Abby that has a Celtics beer with a great name….
Maybe a Portland brewery will be able to create a Second Banner Belgian Dubbel in the future.
Sharpe at 7
Each year (when Portland has a first round pick), I take the opportunity to make tenuous beer connections and since the Blazers tanked semi-succesfully to pick #7, I definitely had to have an NBA draft post this year.
Since Shaedon Sharpe basically has a stop over at Kentucky, let’s instead head to the province of Ontario in Canada.
So let’s go to London and what I hope Rip City will become, a Powerhouse.
They have a smoked pineapple Gose that sounds great but since I am thinking about an NBA ‘ship, their Daydream Dunkels sounds even better this day.
Also, welcome to PDX, Jerami Grant!
Rasta Monsta
Former Portland Trailblazer forward Brian Grant has collaborated with Portland brewery Von Ebert to release a beer benefitting his foundation, Rasta Monsta is set to be released at the Blazers home court, Moda Center near the end of this basketball season, starting March 30th.
Rasta Monsta will be the first beer done by Grant but Von Ebert has been helping his Pints for Parkinsons cause in the past.
The Brian Grant Foundation seeks to “help improve the well-being of people with Parkinson’s,” and one of the ways it has done that in the past is via its Pints for Parkinson’s fundraiser, which featured a beer passport.
Von Ebert describes the beer as having “notes of guava, overripe mango, and a touch of pineapple, with a crisp malt backbone holding it all together.”
Riip City
I have listened and now watched on YouTube the final seconds of Portland’s one and only NBA championship win many times and with Bill Schonely, the voice and totem of the Trailblazers retiring, I wish that I could find this beer….
Three cheers for The Schonz!
Trade Deadline
No, this is not an NBA blog but part of the reason that beer is part of my story is because I am from Portland and Portland is inextricably tied to the Blazers and currently the health of Damian Lillard’s abdomen.
Which means a kinda-sorta-no good season needed some action to set-up next year, replenish draft picks or to at least avoid the luxury tax.
The latter being why the trigger was pulled to trade forwards Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers for guard Eric Bledsoe, forward Justise Winslow, and guard Keon Johnson. The Blazers will also receive a second-round pick and a trade exception in the deal.
Then, the big deal came down on Tuesday, CJ McCollum being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans for forward Josh Hart, guards Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomas Satoransky and draft compensation.
We then turned around and sent Alexander-Walker and Satoransky away to the Jazz and Spurs respectively and received back more picks and currently injured three point specialist Joe Ingles.
I think that Hart and Ingles have the most current upside with Johnson and having future upside. The draft picks will require some mining to find something but if the plan is to go young, the process has begun.
The beer link is community. As the Blazers do well, more people go to games, buy merch like the pint glass above, there is a spring in the step of fans and non-fans alike. You see Blazer themed beers popping up more. People head to sports bars, especially if there is a deep playoff run. You hear cheering outside your window. I have seen that joy as both the Dodgers and Rams have had recent success.
The Rising Tide maxim becomes plainly clear. Community matters and we need more of it whether it is basketball or IPAs.