Pay Blazers now

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 23, 2017

Hitting a variety of items on the subject of sports …

• In January, season ticket-holders of the Trail Blazers were emailed a notice that the deadline for early renewal of tickets for the 2017-18 season was Feb. 13.

Season ticket-holders who chose to pay in full would be charged on March 13. Those who preferred three installments would be charged on March 13, June 5 and Sept. 5. Or they could opt for 12 monthly payments beginning in April. If they renewed online and selected paperless ticketing, they could earn one percent of the total cost back in credit for food or merchandise at Moda Center.

If season ticket-holders fail to respond by March 13, they give up the rights to the location of their tickets, which are offered to other potential buyers beginning in April.

Most of the tickets, incidentally, will be more expensive next season than they were this season.

It seems a bit preliminary, given the 2016-17 season isn’t over. And also somewhat nervy, given the product the Blazers have put on the floor this season has been rather pallid.

But it’s pretty much the way the Blazers have been running things for some time.

“They want to get people lined up for next year,” season ticket-holder John Coleman says. “It’s a business. They’ve been able to get away with it.”

But some of the natives are growing restless.

Ron Sloy renewed his two courtside tickets for about $90,000, or as he figures it, “$1,080 a pop.”

“We always renew our tickets early,” says Sloy, a certified financial planner. “But I know a few (season ticket-holders) who are strongly considering either selling part or all of their packages for next year.”

Last week, Coleman sent in a check for $26,000 to cover his four seats — two in the fourth row, two a little higher up — for next season. On Monday, he emailed his account representative to put a hold on the check.

“I was pissed off about the (Mason) Plumlee trade,” says Coleman, president of Sullivan & Associates Insurance of Oregon. “Still am. They overpaid everyone else (after last season), so now we don’t get to keep him.”

As a season ticket-holder since 1995, Coleman gets a 20-percent discount on cost of the tickets. He’s appreciative of that, but is growing disenchanted with the on-court product.

“I pay the damn price,” he says. “I enjoy the entertainment. We have great seats.

“But it’s a lot of stinking money. Every year, I think, ‘Why am I doing this? Why am I supporting a team that can’t even play .500 ball?'”

• Sure, I’m a curmudgeon, but the lack of defense played in the NBA All-Star Game (and Rising Stars Challenge) is appalling. It’s a badge of honor for players to not play defense.

It’s been that way for years, but it’s worse now than it’s ever been.

I’ve seen better close-outs at Dollar Tree.

If I want to watch a player throw the ball off the backboard and dunk, I’ll go find a Street Ball/And One Mix Tape.

The best players in the world should be above this. I don’t think that’s the kind of exhibition the fans want to see. Is it?

• NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants to raise the minimum age from 19 to 20. Players Association executive director Michele Roberts wants to lower it to 18.

I would love to see it raised to 20. It would be better for the development of players, who would benefit from an extra year of college (or European) ball as opposed to riding an NBA bench. But I’m surprised there hasn’t been a legal challenge to the 19-year-old limit. The NBA is preventing the rare 18-year-old good enough for the league (LeBron James, Kevin Garnett) from earning a living.

• Speaking of big-time basketball, Ice Cube has founded a new 3-on-3 professional league called “BIG3.” The league will be comprised of eight teams of five players, one head coach and one assistant coach, and will play games in 10 cities throughout the country this summer.

Plenty of former Blazers supposedly have committed to participate, including Clyde Drexler as an assistant coach and Jermaine O’Neal and Kenny Anderson as players. Also, three exalted members of the “Jail Blazers” — J.R. Rider, Bonzi Wells and Ruben Patterson.

Other names: Allen Iverson, Gary Payton, Latrell Sprewell, Stephen Jackson and — a late addition — Charles Oakley. Deportment, evidently, is not an issue.

Can’t wait to see if this thing ever actually gets off the ground.

• Is Portland State the most hard-luck team ever, or just a team that can’t get things done down the stretch of a close game?

PSU lost a pair of road games over the weekend — 90-88 in overtime to Montana State and 85-82 to Montana. The Vikings (12-13 overall, 5-9 in Pac-12 play) have dropped seven of their last eight games — four in overtime, and six of the losses by six points or fewer.

That’s almost criminal.

• Andy Landforce, the last living member of Oregon State’s 1942 “Transplanted Rose Bowl” team, celebrated his 100th birthday last week. I caught up with Andy via telephone on the day before, and he was both excited and apprehensive about the centennial celebration.

“Right now, I feel a yard behind,” he said. “The family wants to do a spectacular thing. We have friends coming from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and others from Wallowa County, and relatives from Bellingham (Washington). I’m concerned about getting enough to eat and getting enough sleep and being rested so I can be on my feet.”

• After the Miami Heat’s record dipped to 11-30 at the midseason point, fans had not only written off the Heat’s playoff chances, some of them were calling for the head of coach Erik Spoelstra, the former Jesuit High and University of Portland point guard.

Then Miami ran off a 13-game win streak that former Heat star Dwyane Wade called “just as impressive” as the 27-game streak the Heat pulled off during franchise-record 66-win season in 2013.

“No matter what their record was, they just played so hard,” Wade, now with Chicago, told The Vertical. “I know it comes from (Spoelstra), his assistant coaches and the culture that was built.

“We did it with Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Ray Allen. (This year’s team) has eight (actually 10) former D-League players.”

The Heat pulled into the All-Star break 25-32 and only two games behind Detroit, which is in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s the best coaching job that’s gone on this year,” says Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy, for whom Spoelstra once served when Van Gundy was Miami’s head coach. “I’ve said it for years, but because I worked with him, I’m biased and nobody writes it. There’s not a better coach in the league than Erik.”

• Kyrie Irving thinks the earth is flat, and Draymond Green says it could be true.

Remember, former major leaguer Carl Everett said there were no dinosaurs.

There’s a lot of gray matter involved here, folks.

• I pulled into Chiles Center at 4:30 p.m. last Thursday, 2 1/2 hours before the Pilots’ game against Pacific, to beat the traffic. Portland guard Jazz Johnson already was on the court, getting up some of the 250 shots he takes before every game.

The 5-10 sophomore from Lake Oswego High is one of the West Coast Conference’s most improved players, averaging 15.9 points while shooting .442 from the field and .411 from 3-point range.

It’s partly because he works so hard on his shooting, and partly because he has toned his body, cutting from a peak of 218 to his current 192 pounds.

“Better diet — portion control — and lots of exercise,” Johnson says.

• Starting in the backcourt with Johnson the last two games has been Xavier Hallinan, a 6-1 sophomore walk-on from Central Catholic High who had played seven minutes all season until a Feb. 11 game at Loyola Marymount.

Hallinan started the second half and played the rest of the game against the Lions, then got his first career start against Pacific. He scored eight of the Pilots’ first 10 points and finished with 12 points in 28 minutes against the Tigers.

“At LMU, we couldn’t take care of the ball, so I decided to see what he could give us,” first-year UP coach Terry Porter says. “He really settled us down, played well and gave us a chance to win.

“He is a tough kid with a bit of a swagger to him despite being a walk-on. I’m not surprised he is doing well and making the most of his chance.”

Hallinan had no scholarship offers out of high school. He was given a chance to walk at UP last season by former coach Erik Reveno, who knew Hallinan because his mother, Mary Virnig, is an administrative assistant in the school’s athletic department.

That’s a Cinderella story if there ever was one.

kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com

@kerryeggers