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I dont feel right sitting in the back watching, he said.
So it happened that with 4:06 left in the first quarter on Saturday afternoon, Roy pulled off his warm-ups and checked into the 2010 playoffs for the first time.
It had been 13 days since hed injured his right knee in L.A. against the Lakers. It had been eight days since doctors had performed surgery to repair a torn meniscus. It had been two days since the Trail Blazers had been whipped for the second straight game by the Suns, embarrassed and even booed on their home floor.
Players play.
There were no thorny boos from the Rose Garden crowd on this day. Not with the Blazers best player back on the floor. Not with their season maybe hanging in the balance. Not with the theme from Rocky blaring from the loudspeakers as he made his way up the sideline to the scorers table.
No, I didnt quite hear the Rocky music, Roy said giggling. I heard the fans. The biggest thing I had to keep telling myself was to just relax.
As the years and the decades go by, especially if Portland comes back to win the series, which is now even at 2-2, this 96-87 win by the Blazers will become a story and a legend that grows. It will fit somewhere between Willis Reed hobbling out of the tunnel at Madison Square Garden and Charlton Heston as the lifeless body of El Cid being propped up and tied to his stallion for the climactic battle against the Moors.
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