SPORTS
6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS BEGIN NBA PLAYOFFS TONIGHT
Carmelo faces his former team in playoffs
By Anne M. Peterson
“This is where I should
be. I should be in the
postseason.”
AP Sports Writer
PORTLAND — Carmelo
Anthony has been around the
NBA for quite some time but
he’s never faced the team that
launched his career in the
playoffs.
Until now.
Anthony’s current team,
the Portland Trail Blazers,
faces the Denver Nuggets in a
fi rst-round best-of-seven series
starting Saturday.
Anthony said he hadn’t real-
ized that he’d never faced the
Nuggets in the postseason. But
so much has changed since he
wore a Denver jersey.
“It’s a lot different now. My
mindset is different. My goals
are different. We’re going in
there trying to win,” he said.
“So, it’s a different type of men-
tality, but deep down inside I
know that Denver will always
hold a special place for me.”
A 10-time All-Star, Anthony
is ready for another chance at
an NBA title, something that
has so far eluded him in his
18-year career and 12 trips to
—Carmelo Anthony
Anthony hadn’t played for
a year when he was signed by
the Trail Blazers in November
2019. He instantly sparked the
team and developed a chem-
istry with his teammates
while also providing veteran
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian leadership.
Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony looks to pass as
This season he’s come off
the Portland Trail Blazers face the Oklahoma City Thunder the bench, leading the Blaz-
at Moda Center on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
ers’ second unit with an aver-
age of 13.4 points per game,
the postseason. Last season,
played in Denver for seven-
“What he’s done for us in
Portland was eliminated in
plus seasons, helping the team a year and a half has been
fi ve games by the Los Angeles reach the Western Conference what we needed. This year,
Lakers.
Finals following the 2008-09
the role that he’s had off the
“This is where I should be.
season.
bench has been a big part of
I should be in the postseason.
He was traded in 2011 to
the reason why we are where
That’s just me speaking from the New York Knicks, where
we are,” Blazers coach Terry
the heart and genuinely. If I’m he spent more than six sea-
Stotts said.
not in the postseason, then it
sons. Anthony also had stops
Anthony wasn’t with the
should be a problem,” he said. in Oklahoma and Houston, but Blazers yet when they last
Anthony was drafted by the in early 2019 he was traded to faced the Nuggets in the
Nuggets with the third overall Chicago and the Bulls cut him playoffs in 2019. Portland
pick in the 2003 NBA draft. He before he played a game.
won in seven games to
advance to the Western Con-
ference Finals, but fell in four
games to Golden State.
Likewise, the personnel in
Denver has turned over since
Anthony left. But the Nug-
gets are still very aware of
the danger Anthony poses.
“You have arguably one
of the greatest one-on-one
scorers in NBA history in
Carmelo Anthony, who’s still
doing it at a high level at this
stage of his career, which is
really impressive,” Denver
coach Michael Malone said.
The Blazers are riding
momentum into the playoffs,
having won 10 of their fi nal
12 regular-season games.
“Mentally, when we’re in
a good space as a unit, as a
team, we’re in a good space.
Confi dence-wise we’re in
a good space. These are all
things that you want to have
clicking for you going into
the postseason,” Anthony
said. “I think right now we
have a lot of those things
working in our favor head-
ing into this postseason. So
Portland vs.
Denver
GAME ONE
• Portland at Denver,
Saturday, May 22,
7:30 p.m., TV on ESPN
GAME TWO
• Portland at Denver,
Monday, May 24,
7 p.m., TV on TNT
GAME THREE
• Denver at Portland,
Thursday, May 27,
7:30 p.m., TV on NBATV
GAME FOUR
• Denver at Portland,
Saturday, May 29
1 p.m., TV on TNT
we’ve got to stay with that,
continue to believe in our-
selves, understand what we
are up against, understand
how hard we worked to get to
this point.”
Major League Baseball needs to keep emotion in the game
Nearly a decade ago, sitting in a
movie theater with my brothers, I
remember being unable to contain
my excitement. Growing up an Oak-
land A’s fan, I was anxious to watch
the movie “Moneyball” starring Brad
Pitt and Jonah Hill. Sitting inside
the depths of the coliseum, each of
their characters began to talk over
the video about values they see in
the game of baseball. One line has
resonated in that dialogue that has
changed my perception of the game
since that day. Pitt, playing the A’s
general manager Billy Beane, looked
at Hill (playing fi ctional character
Peter Brand) and said this:
“It’s hard to not be romantic about
baseball. This kind of thing is fun for
fans.”
It’s simple to say that what fuels
COREY
KIRK
any sport is the emotion behind the
big moments. But Major League
Baseball seems to have forgotten
the importance of emotion. Whether
it’s a pitcher pumping his fi st after
getting out of a bases-loaded jam, or
a player rounding third and heading
home to be mobbed after hitting a
game-winning home run, emotion is
what fans crave. But if the players
are being caught up in the excite-
ment, the league is quick to try and
snuff it with the issuing of fi nes or
suspensions.
The perfect scenario that shows
improper discipline happened nearly
a month ago. In a game between the
Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis
Cardinals, Reds’ outfi elder Nick
Castellanos was hit by a pitch in
the fourth inning. Castellanos was
able to score later in the inning, and
the chaos ensued. Colliding with
Cardinals’ pitcher Jake Woodford,
Castellanos slid in safely, stood up,
fl exed, yelled and walked away. The
benches and bullpens cleared soon
after, resulting in numerous ejec-
tions, including Castellanos.
Later, Castellanos was issued a
two-game suspension. Michael Hill,
MLB senior vice president of on-fi eld
operations, said the suspension was
for Castellanos’ “aggressive actions
and for instigating.”
The eight-year MLB veteran
defended his actions at his appeal,
and he told MLB.com that it was an
emotional moment.
“That was pretty much our case.
I don’t really know how else to de-
scribe it, just that I wasn’t out (there)
trying to provoke anybody to fi ght,”
Castellanos said. “It was just the
emotions that can sometimes natu-
rally come out when, I guess, you
really want to win, you know? If I’m
playing kickball or something with
my friends and brother or something
in my neighborhood, similar things
would happen, you know?”
Let me preface this by saying that
even though I oppose MLB trying to
rid the game of emotion, immediate
ejection is an option to avoid a situa-
tion in which a player could be hurt.
But the two-game suspension to
me was completely unnecessary.
A league that claims to love the
enthusiasm players show is display-
ing tone deafness here.
If MLB offi cials felt the need to
make an example of Castellanos, an
undisclosed fi ne would have been
more suitable than taking the player
from the Reds for two games.
As a fan, I hope Castellano’s
suspension is an isolated incident.
Because if this is a sign of what’s to
come, MLB is going to leave a sour
taste in the mouths of players and,
most importantly, the fans. Emotion
should be encouraged. At the end of
the day, these athletes are human,
and whatever emotion that courses
through their veins, they should be
able to display it.
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