Looking Back with John Canzano: Blazers' grit, guts can mean playoff spot

First, I’m all for local sports columnists showing some enthusiasm. One problem Dwight Jaynes has is that he’s been overexposed to the dark side of the sports business, and he often sounds overly cynical and joyless. Some of his columns read like he’s saying, “I know you enjoyed this - now let me explain why you shouldn’t have.”
The other side of the equation is when the local sports columnist sounds supportive to the point of lunacy, which brings us to John Canzano. Frankly, I’ve been a little creeped out by this guy since he got a urine sample from Damon Stoudamire to have it tested. I don’t need my local sports columnists doing that. Just cover the games. If you are receiving bodily fluids from the athletes, you are way too close to the story.
Damon is gone now, and the Blazers are nursing a 20 and 50 record. Whoops, they played last night so it’s 20 and 51. But I thought that nice round number was a good chance to revisit John Canzano’s column of November 18th. He wrote if the Blazers “stay healthy and scrap, the only way they don't make the postseason is if they allow their youth to be an excuse. The preseason marketing campaign declared, "Ready or not, here we come." But now, it should be changed to, "Why not?" As in, why not the playoffs?”

Okay, I’ll play along. Let's see...Why not? Uh, maybe because the team sucks?
I’m all for a little enthusiasm but Dwight Jaynes’ cynicism has its place, too. John Canzano wrote, “I think the Trail Blazers will make the playoffs. Crazy, huh?” Yeah, John, crazy. But at least you didn’t have to get any urine samples to figure this one out.

Blazers' grit, guts can mean playoff spot