Game 5

Blazers vs. Rockets. Game 5. Win or go home.

We got to the Rose Garden with plenty of time before they opened the doors. Lacey got her face painted as Rian and I picked out a Roy jersey for him. Ethan stayed home with Grandma.

As soon as they opened the doors, we headed down to the floor and watched some of the players warm up. When I got down to the floor, I found myself standing about 15 feet from Yao Ming. I was stunned. It turns out that he's pretty big. 7' 6". Go figure.

We watched him shoot for a while and then headed over to watch the Blazers warm up. Lacey and I got Martell Webster's attention a few times and got him to return our waves. Aldrige gave me five, and Blake signed one of those little Blazers signs that they hand out as you enter the arena. Rian sort of enjoyed the pre-game, but was mostly freaked out by the self-proclaimed Blazers Rally Monkey (a dude with a gorilla mask) that we happened to be standing next to.

I didn't really take any pictures during the game. I was too busy screaming my head off. The middle-aged man in front of me, on the other hand, was busy updating his facebook status on his iPhone during the game.

Game 6 is on Thursday!

Wanna Be a Baller

I had a basketball game on Friday. As I was warming up, Rian joined me on the court, as he does before and after all of my games. Usually he just rebounds for me and the other guys on the team, but lately he has been shooting more and more. When he shoots at a full-sized hoop, as we were on Friday, he shoots granny-style, holding the ball underhanded below his waist and scooping it up to the hoop in one motion. He just isn't strong enough to shoot overhanded at a hoop that high. Even when shooting underhanded, strength is the biggest problem. It is usually cause for celebration if the ball gets high enough to touch the net. He has never so much as hit the rim, much less made a shot. But he tries. Over and over and over.

So there we were on Friday. The game wouldn't start for about 15 minutes, and the gym wasn't very full yet. I was working on my touch around the basket (after missing about 5 shots from point-blank range last week... sigh) and Rian was hoisting granny shots up toward the rim. I was in between shots and happened to catch Rian lob another ball up toward the basket. Right away I could tell the trajectory of this shot was different than all of his others. It was going higher, faster. I turned and watched as it rose higher and higher toward the rim. The ball reached its apex just as it got above the rim, landing on the front of the rim. Time seemed to stand still as everyone watched, wondering if it would curl over the rim and into the basket, or fall back toward the floor and the wide-eyed boy that had thrown it so high. The whole thing took less than a second, but felt like it lasted much longer. The ball hesitated for a moment on the rim, then rolled forward and into the hoop.

Rian had made his first basket!

I let out an exclamation that got the attention of everyone in the gym, and made sure that everyone around knew the significance of what had just happened. Not only was this Rian's first basket, it came on a full-sized (10') hoop and with a full-sized ball. He was beaming as he received high-fives from my teammates and me, unsuccessfully trying not to smile.

So that's how Rian made his first shot.