300

The beginning of the regular season for the Portland Trail Blazers was filled with hype and hope.

Then people started getting hurt.

78-year-old-looking Center Greg Oden got hurt again. So did Center Joel Pryzbilla. Starting forward Nicolas Batum hurt his shoulder. Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake all missed games. Later-on, while rehabbing back home, Pryzbilla slipped in a shower and re-injured his back. The head coach ruptured his Achilles tendon. The owner and an assistant coach got diagnosed with cancer.

Hope started fading, even though the team never did.

Despite having 13 players miss over 300 games in the season, the Blazers went on to finish with a 50-32 record and secure the number six seed in the NBA Western Conference Playoffs.

Just in time for that series, our All Star player, Brandon Roy, hurt his knee. He had surgery and will miss at least this round of the playoffs.

Tonight we open the series against the red-hot Phoenix Suns and, yet again, everyone has written us off. I've even talked to fans who admit, "We'll give them a run, but, we don't have a chance." I disagree. I have learned to never give up on this team. Not this year.

This is the ultimate underdog scenario. This is truly 300.