Brandon Roy's Buzzer-Beater Won More Than a Game for Portland

If you're like most NBA fans, then you aren't used to seeing the Portland Trail Blazers (yes, two words) on national television. This season started with the Blazers on TNT in Los Angeles against the Lakers, for the much-anticipated debut of Greg Oden. Oden, as you surely remember, missed all of what was supposed to be his rookie year last season when he had to shut it down to rehab from microfracture surgery. And it was Oden who was supposed to take the young Blazers from a pesky fringe playoff team to an up-and-coming power knocking on the door to future NBA championships. When Oden couldn't even make it out of the first half of his first game unscathed, Portland's playoff hopes were supposed to go crashing down with him. Every team looking to be a championship team in the future has to start by taking their lumps. For this Blazers team, making the playoffs in 2008-09 after a five-year hiatus from the postseason was the very first goal. So when guard—no, check that—when  ... (link)