Rip City Junior?

Coworkers will tease me about the 106-97 loss, but it was fun watching the visiting PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS play the San Antonio Spurs tonight on television.
Portland has the youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of about 24, but they stayed with the defending NBA champions for most of the game -- even climbing back from a 16-point deficit.
LaMarcus Aldridge (pictured) looked like a real star, scoring 27 points to lead all scorers (even Tim Duncan). Fellow youngster Martell Webster added 21, while one of the few "oldsters" on the Blazers, Joel Przybilla, added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Blazers are the NBA's youngest team (even without the injured first pick in the draft, Greg Oden), and their relative youth showed at times, with the players making some questionable decisions on offense and defense (losing wide-open players while attempting to play zone defense, for example).
Still, the relative youth also means MY FAVORITE NBA TEAM boasts plenty of potential.
We haven't yet returned to the days of Clyde Drexler, Cliff Robinson or Jerome Kersey, but the dawn of a new, great era seems closer to reality than it has in years.