| 22 March 2010
Standing in a swarm of media members at the Portland Trail Blazers practice facility on Tuesday afternoon, Kevin Pritchard tried to defuse what’s become an explosive situation.
He looked tired. He looked defeated.
He couldn’t do anything about it.
He spoke quietly from the heart.
“I want the focus off of this and on the team. This team deserves our focus,” said Pritchard, who couldn’t truly say for certain that he’d be around to see “this team” finish what Pritchard helped start.
Over the past three days, we’ve read and heard it all about Pritchard.
Much stemmed from the firing of Tom Penn and vehemently spun by Pritchard and Penn’s agent, Warren LeGarie. Team president, Larry Miller, has quickly drawn the ire of the Blazer faithful which will only increase as Pritchard’s tenure in Portland likely draws to a close.
It appears it’s heading in that direction.
Even still, there are some around the league who are looking to pile on Pritchard at this time.
This goes for some NBA writers. This goes for some team executives. But not everyone is kicking the guy when he is down. In fact, some are straight out disgusted by it.
“Since when did hating on him (Pritchard) become a popular trend around here?” asked one trusted league source.
“All Kevin has done since joining Portland is help re-make them from a laughing stock in the league to a team other front offices emulate. If you don’t care for the way he goes about his business, that’s your problem. That’s not his. That doesn’t make it alright to beat the guy when he’s obviously going through a difficult time.”
While Pritchard gained support, there remains growing concern that his departure from the Blazers simply doesn’t bode well for Portland.
“It would be a massive mistake to let him walk,” the source continued.
“We are talking about setting the franchise back a couple years here. Really. Plenty of teams around the league will be paying close attention to see what happens this summer in Portland with their front office. He won’t be out of a job long. So why not retain him?
“It’s all just odd. I feel bad for Kevin. He’s becoming a target when he shouldn’t be. Now we’ve heard from him. We’ve heard from (Larry) Miller. But wouldn’t a kind word from Paul Allen go a long way.”
That it would.
But no one is holding their breath for that to happen. Apparently both ownership and parts of management are willing to deal with the alternative.
“Portland is so close. I can’t believe they are really going to let it all slip away like this.”
It looks that way.
photo: oregonlive
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