I'm actually looking forward to the H-O-R-S-E competition at All-Star Weekend between return champ Kevin Durant, Rajon Rando, and Omri Casspi.

When the Los Angeles Lakers were in town in early January, I’d planned on getting with Andrew Bynum on a quick story about his season – with the help of Lakers assistant Chuck Persons, who put the kid through a rough pregame workout.

When Portland hosted Oklahoma City on Tuesday night at the Rose Garden, the marquee match-up was billed Nicolas Batum against Kevin Durant.

But the battle between power forwards LaMarcus Aldridge and Jeff Green (note the Sonics flashback pic) was really worth breaking down. One guy prefers the face-up game (Aldridge). The other, at 6’9, has fallen in love with the three-point line (Green has 193 attempts this season).

For the past few weeks we’ve heard management’s stance on Portland making a move with the NBA trade deadline looming. And now with 10 days left until that deadline, chances are we’ll continue to hear the same “we like what we have” speak from Kevin Pritchard and Nate McMillan.

The phone call came Tuesday afternoon from the publisher of the newspaper and by Wednesday night the news was official.

After spending the last four months writing a column on the Portland Trail Blazers and producing running coverage on the Rose Quarter/Memorial Coliseum redevelopment, my days at the Portland Sentinel have sadly come to a close.