Sheed’s Dismissal

You see, my friends, I really do [grudgingly] know that this is an okay trade. I have two main problems:
1. It’s like Nash, Patterson, and Cheeks gave up on the season, to make such a MAJOR trade this late in the game. I don’t want them to give up on the season. I require at least a moderate amount of excitement for my $10.
2. Sheed’s role as a tragic genius, AKA a good player with a bad-and-sometimes-maniacal-attitude, has cultivated strong but tumultous bonds with the most passionate of Blazers fans. For better or for worse, Rasheed Wallace has been the godhead of the team. Yes, perhaps now Sweet Monsieur Randolph’s head will sprout in its stead. Yes, perhaps the team will play better, more in tandem with one another. Yes, perhaps now 10-year-olds wanting autographs won’t get cursed out by 6’11” tall pro basketball players at airports just for asking.
But still, my intial shock was akin to the one felt by parents when the nest is emptied. I’m not alone; no less than four Blazer cohorts have called on me for mutual counseling/mourning since that fateful day. My soon-to-be-housemate/partner in NBA fandom, Ms. Connie Wohn, suggested we wear black armbands in Rasheed solidarity. Another friend, Mr. Aaron Beam, is taking a sign to the Blazers vs. Nuggets (no pun intended) game tomorrow: “Blazers – Sheed = Nuggets Fan.” PDX Indie Rock Basketball has been postponed a week, to give the players a chance to digest the news. And think about Rasheed’s wife and two sons! They may be uprooted–in the middle of the school year! It is so hard to start a new school in the middle of the school year.
You see? It is something we love, stripped from us, just as our fears had begun to fade. It is post-traumatic stress disorder. We must start anew, but not before travelling through all seven stages of grief as established by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
And then: on to the playoffs with Shareef Abdur-Rahim.