JR Rider Watch: North Texas Fresh edition

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this for so long, but a team has signed JR Rider back into action.

The team is the North Texas Fresh and the league is the ABA. Their mascot appears to be a monkey gangster from the 1950's. Team merchandise is not currently available. (Way ahead of you on that one.) Yes, they happen to play their home games in a gymnasium that is owned, operated, and otherwise used by a high school.

The important thing is that Rider will indeed be doing something resembling professional basketball. That means the JR Rider Watch is still on. We will strive to cover the comeback of all comebacks as well as possible.

I must add: Should have been you, Yamhill HighFlyers.

UPDATE: Its been brought to my attention that the monkey gangster from the 1950's mascot strikes some as a sort of racist mascot, which is a lot less fun.

(Photo Assist: BIOHH EVENTS.)

JR Rider Watch: Um, arrests probably won't help edition

We were pretty pumped about JR Rider's comeback attempt. The thing is, we sort of forgot that JR Rider is JR Rider:

The Bad Boy image continues even though his playing days have been long over. Rider was arrested in Ahwatukee last Wednesday after the police got a call about a family fight.

Rider was taken into custody after an outstanding felony warrant was found on his record.

It looks like the chances that the Nets were going to invite Rider to training camp just went from slim to none. We remain hopeful that JR will stay out of jail long enough to sign a contract with someone. Anyone, really.

(Assist Ben from BlazersEdge via Twitter. Hockey assist Sham Sports.)

JR Rider Watch: Comeback! Edition

Another day, another report of an awesome player trying to launch a comeback. This time it's former Blazer great and fan favorite J.R. Rider, who at age 38 might have just realized that his legacy consists of the Eastbay Funk Dunk and wasted talent. Apparently he has an offer from a team in Europe and is actually maybe possibly being invited to the Nets training camp:

The New Jersey Nets are considering inviting Rider to preseason camp, Lee said, even though that team said it doesn't see Rider competing for a roster spot.

It is times like these that really make me wish I owned an IBL team.



(Assist SLAM.)

Why not enjoy another Jailblazer story?

Because they seem infinitely funnier and less depressing when things are well in Rip City. This from Deadspin:

The second story involves Rasheed Wallace back in his days playing for the Trail Blazers. Early in Wallace's career, he was involved in a nasty child custody battle with his then fiancé, Fatima. Fatima ended up kidnapping Wallace's son. Wertheim, working for SI, was sent to Portland to cover the story of the kidnapping. Wallace agreed to cooperate with the story as a way of raising awareness of his son's disappearance. (He had, in fact, gone on live TV to ask people to help in the return of his son).

But when Wertheim got to Portland, Wallace told him that, before anything, he had to go out bowling that night with Gary Trent and Isaiah Rider. So Wertheim, in his rental car, followed the three players in their SUV as they made their way to the alley. Only they couldn't find the alley, so the three players then decided to stop the car RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING STREET while they tried to sort out where the alley was.

One motorist honked at the players to get moving. In response, Rider proceeded to hock a loogie on the motorist's windshield.

Somebody needs to collect all of these stories into a single encyclopedia. Only then can they be fully enjoyed by the public and serve as a warning to all General Manager's that would dare value individual talent above all else.

Blazers and the dunk contest

Agreed, the timing of this post makes no sense. However, being that your attention is currently ensared by March Madness and the Western Conference playoff race, I don't think you'll notice. Not one bit.

No Blazer has ever won the dunk contest. A couple guys who have spent some time in Portland won it while with other teams, like local hero Fred Jones and, um, lets move on. More interestingly, there were three years when Clyde (who was pretty hard) and Jerome Kersey both tried to bring home the trophy while adorned in pinwheels. They almost pulled it off, both coming as close as second. Kersey once scored a perfect 50 off a mind-bending sideways reverse alley-oop off the glass thing, joining the elite company of the great Cedric Ceballos. Being an unwavering fan of the event, taking a look at when Blazers represented is especially thrilling. Watch and enjoy.