Portland 93, Charlotte 69

Last night, the Blazers welcomed back the guys they just traded away to the Rose Garden, as the Charlotte Bobcats made their only trip to Portland they'll be making this season.

The only Blazer performance worth noting is LaMarcus Aldridge's 26 points and 7 boards.  Marcus Camby did help out with some much-needed hustle and 10 rebounds of his own.  Camby seems to be getting back into the swing of things after the time he missed with his knee injury.

Joel Przybilla had only 5 points and 2 rebounds, but the best part of the night were the two standing ovations the Rose Garden crowd gave him when he came into the game and when he fouled out of the game.  One of his six fouls was truly Przybilla-esque, when he hit Gerald Wallace in the face as Wallace was going up for a layup.  Przybilla apologized to Wallace after smacking him in the face.

The Rose Garden fans even chanted "Joel Pryz-bil-la" a couple of times during the game, a  Rose Garden trend that I am definitely growing to love.

Maybe the most interesting thing about this game, though, was Gerald Wallace's quote about how he felt betrayed when he learned that the Bobcats had traded him.  "Basically, you feel betrayed by somebody you love.....I totally didn’t see it coming. I’d been there seven long years and then you feel like you’re not wanted anymore. That’s a bad situation to be in, especially for me, who committed so much to the organization."

On that same subject, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, wrote an article about loyalty and what it means in the NBA.  In the piece, an anonymous player on the Bobcats had some interesting things to say.

From Bonnell's article:  "This player asked a fairness question: Should a system exist where the Cavaliers could force James to stay in Cleveland, while the Bobcats could simultaneously trade Gerald Wallace for draft picks and payroll relief?

His point: If the league wants to force stars to play in the same city indefinitely, then players who want to stay where they are, and have real tenure with those organizations, should have more say in their futures."  The anonymous player claims that loyalty in the NBA is quite the one way street.

It's definitely an interesting point to talk about.  Bonnell mentions the 10/5 rule that baseball has where if a player has 10 years experience and 5 with the same club, that they had the right to veto any trade that they're involved in.  I think basketball could definitely do something like that and it'd work pretty well.

Regardless of Wallace's feelings of betrayal towards the Bobcats, I'm just glad he's here in Portland and not rotting away in mediocrity in Charlotte.