BY BILL EVANS

We got lucky! By that, I mean it’s only about 78 degrees in the normally scorching metropolis of Medford, where we tipped off the second annual Kia Presents: Trail Blazers Make It Better Statewide Summer Tour. A contingent of eight Trail Blazers employees arrived last night, fittingly dining at a restaurant named Porters, which we don’t think was named after the Trail Blazers great.

Too bad we couldn’t find “Kersey’s” since we are joined this week by JK25, serving in the role of ambassador and guest instructor. He is one of several coaches assisting our ‘Sarge,’ Adrian Stelly, Trail Blazers Basketball Outreach Coordinator. We began our week with two free basketball clinics today at Kid’s Unlimited. We were here last year. It is a neat building, a converted bowling alley that is now a kids’ center plenty large enough to handle the approximately 200 kids that arrived today to hone their basketball skills.

JK25 walked into the gym lamenting that all the time he spends on the golf course doesn’t leave him much time to hone his basketball skills. Nevertheless, he hit about 20 straight jumpers on my watch, making my rebounding job much easier. I didn’t ask him to dunk!

Everyone wants to talk Blazers basketball, from Victor Claver to Paul Millsap to Nate McMillan, there were a lot of inquiring minds. We also got a lot of people asking when we are going to come back to Medford for a pre-season game. These Southern Oregonians love their Trail Blazers, and the sight of Kersey was a treat for long-time fans, who were a bit surprised to see him in their town.

In addition to Jerome and Sarge Stelly, we are welcomed by two first-time Coaches on the SST circuit – CFO Gregg Olson and Group Experience Manager Athena Demas. They join tour vets Dick Vardanega, Kris Koivisto, Alissa Moore and me, your tour guide.

Off to Klamath Falls this afternoon in our Kia Borregos, which are refueled and ready for the drive to Gino’s for a now annual Italian repast at our favorite Southern Oregon eatery.

How does a restaurant become our favorite? They put our picture on the wall, feed us too much fried ravioli and they and get us featured in the local paper, that’s how!

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