Letting a franchise player like Brandon Roy play just eight days after knee surgery requires a pretty huge leap of faith. Roy wasn’t supposed to come back until later in the series, if at all. How did the Blazers and Roy get to the point where he played last night?
Blazers Blog Explains How Team Decided To Let Brandon Roy Play
SB Nation’s Blazers blog Blazers Edge has all the details. Ben Golliver reports that Roy played in a 2 on 2 game during Friday’s practice and coach Nate McMillan didn’t feel he was in good enough condition to play. Roy lobbied McMillan well into the night on Friday night trying to get the coach to clear him to play in Game 4 anyway.
Later Friday night, Roy broke out the full court text. “I was texting him all night, trying to convince him, but it just wasn’t working... I kept telling him, ‘I’ve got to play tonight.’” Roy continued, “I was just sitting down watching a couple of games yesterday, I was like, “Coach, I gots to play.’ He would text back, ‘You’ve just got to be patient. I want you to play.’ As the night went on, I just said even if I can’t play 35 minutes, I think 15 or 20 minutes would help.” McMillan smiled recounting the evening. “It was phone calls all night. I talked to him again, he wanted to play bad last night. I called him and talked to him, ‘You didn’t look like you were ready to go.’” Despite the back and forth the two had not yet come to an agreement about whether Roy would play.
McMillan had a “sleepless night,” after which he decided to let Roy play. But McMillan needed approval from general manager Kevin Pritchard and owner Paul Allen. Roy went through a closed shootaround Saturday morning and was activated, but Pritchard didn’t officially give him the go-ahead until before the team took the court for warmups. Roy eventually came in midway through the first quarter, and Golliver described the scene as such.
But at the 4 minute mark of the first quarter glee took over. No one present will forget the moment as Roy charged to the scorer’s table, set to make the most exhilarating substitution of the entire season with the Rocky theme pumping through the arena’s sound system. The phrase “standing ovation” doesn’t do the Rose Garden’s reaction justice, as loud became louder, which became flat-out freak out. “I just got chills when he got up and the crowd saw that he was going to the scorer’s table,” Nate McMillan admitted after the game. “I know our players fed off of that, the emotions and the energy in the building.” Indeed. The Blazers, down early to the Suns once again, went on an 8-0 run with Roy at the scorer’s table.
Roy had just 10 points, one rebound and one assist, but his presence did wonders for LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge was given more room to operate, and he dropped 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in response. He was happy to have Roy back.
Nobody benefited more than LaMarcus Aldridge. “It was huge,” Aldridge said after the game, smiling ear to ear. “As soon as he checked into the game, I got my first open shot with nobody guarding me. I was like, ‘Thank God, he’s back.’”
So now we have a series again. Portland’s next challenge? Succeed without the emotional lift of getting Roy back in action.
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