Dear Trail Blazers,

Well the season ended a little earlier than we all had hoped, but it was one heck of a ride while it lasted! Congratulations on your very good 2002-2003 season, and on the tremendous heart you showed in battling through the injuries to push Dallas to seven games to top it off!

Coming back from that 0-3 deficit was quite simply one of the most astounding runs you have given us - your fans - in quite some time! Game 6, in particular, was an amazing spectacle to behold!

And although you didn't know it while you were running roughshod over the Mavericks at the Rose Garden that night, a large group of die-hard fans who frequent your message board on ESPN.com were cheering you on at Damon's Bar & Grill at Jantzen Beach.

What follows is a brief recap of that gathering - this year's edition of an annual event we refer to as the "Trail Blazers Board Bash" - complete with some pictures so you can see a few of your devoted fans in action.

First off, a little history: The "Board Bash" had its humble beginnings in a chance meeting between GrandpaBlaze - another lifelong Trail Blazers fan and regular on the ESPN.com board - and myself. "Gramps" (as we affectionately call him) was in town interviewing for a position with my company in the Spring of 2000, and we decided to get together to watch one of your first-round games over beer and pizza.

Since we were going to meet in person for the first time, we felt it would be a great opportunity for other board regulars to do the same. In the end, only BlazerJay (who I believe now frequents the Oregonlive.com forum exclusively) joined us. However, the seed for the annual event had been planted. We have held the Board Bash every season since, and attendance continues to grow (from 3 in 2000 to 12 this season).


This year's Board Bash was a little tricky to pull off. We usually try to schedule the event to coincide with your first weekend (Friday or Saturday night) playoff game, for a couple reasons:

Most of the regulars have daytime jobs and/or kids and generally can't "get out" except on weekends

We just never know how that first round series is going to go (although we always believe).

Unfortunately, we got a late start on the planning process this year, and because of that we had lots of calendar conflicts for Games 1, 3, and 4 (the first 3 weekend games of the series). So we ended up scheduling the event to coincide with Game 6, confident in your ability to push the series at least that far (if you didn't put the Mavericks out before then!).

A few of us became just a little nervous as the Mavericks jumped out to that 3-0 series lead, putting Game 6 and the 2003 Board Bash in jeopardy. Yet we stuck with our plan, and were richly rewarded as you battled back to bring the series home to the Rose Garden for Game 6... and proceeded to demolish the Mavericks in every aspect, and on every level, of the game.

We had 12 attendees at this year's Board Bash. GrandpaBlaze drove down from Port Orchard, Washington (where he now lives, works, and professes the virtues of Blazermania to the infidels) and scout226 flew all the way up from Southern California specifically to attend the event. keebs3 took a night off from his studies
at Oregon State University in Corvallis to borrow a friend's car and join us.

The rest of the group was rounded out by e_blazer, Wells_Rules, Spud147 and her friend Kyla (who has since taken to frequenting the board under the ID SabasRocks), PapaG, acphlee, yakbladder and his girlfriend Kristin (a professed non-believer... but we're working on her), and myself.

The friendly people at Damon's blessed us with a couple tables front and center so we could have the best possible view of the game. They have four (4) HUMONGOUS big-screens there, which - along with the great beer, food, and service - make their establishment a sports-lover's paradise!

We ended up having two separate game feeds to choose from (local and national), although once we (and the Blazers) got going we couldn't hear either of them through the cheering... not that we cared, in any event!

Everyone arrived well before tip-off, which gave us a lot of time to put faces to names, settle in, eat a little, drink a little, and properly prepare ourselves for the dismantling of the Mavericks that was to follow. The atmosphere, which was already charged prior to tip-off, turned electric as the Blazers raced out to a huge lead early in the 2nd quarter.

At that point, the Blazers flipped on the auto-pilot and we - like the rest of Portland, I'm sure - hung on for the rest of the ride. Half-time was spent handing out and clowning around with a lot of great Blazers swag (which you so graciously provided - thanks!), eating more, drinking more, and generally having a good time with our fellow board regulars.

At one point, KATU even showed up and interviewed a few of us for their evening sports coverage. The interesting thing about that was they spent most of their time with Kristin... the only non-believer of the bunch! It's all good, though. It's always all good when the Blazers are winning!

The 2nd half was anti-climactic, but you wouldn't have been able to tell if you had been there. Our group got progressively louder as the game wore on, until the final eruption as the clock ticked down to 0:00.

After some last group pictures and good-byes, we packed up our stuff and headed out...ecstatic that the Blazers had risen to the occasion, tied up the series, and gave us one heck of a game - and some great memories to share - during the 2003 edition of the Blazers Board Bash.

Thanks again for the great season and the incredible playoff run, Blazers! We can't wait to do it again next year! GO BLAZERS!!!

Sincerely,
Brian K. (aka ProudBFan) and the rest of the ESPN.com Blazers Board Crew!