Rip City

Riding home on the bus tonight, I looked up just as we were passing the Rose Quarter -- the concrete wedge tucked between the Steel Bridge, Broadway and I-5 -- and saw clusters of people, young and old and mostly male, headed toward the same event: Game 5 of the NBA playoffs between the Houston Rockets and our Portland Trail Blazers.

They were wearing red jerseys with familiar names and numbers: #7, Brandon Roy. #5 Rudy Fernandez ...

The game starts in about 20 minutes, with the Blazers trying to stave off elimination by winning tonight -- and then Thursday -- and then Saturday.

It's a remarkable thing to see how a city -- heck, an entire metro area -- rallies behind a group of professional athletes and their coach. At first, you'd think it was nothing more than a group of young guys with good character who are representing Portland to the rest of the country via the national coverage that comes along with these things.

But, actually, I was talking to a co-worker about this the other day. I think Portlanders are happy to have this diversion given the sometimes-depressing news that can just wash over you like a wave.

Start with the weakened economy, the banks bailout, the outlandish Wall Street salaries and the partisan posturing that defines national politics. Consider our foreign entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq, the misguided suicide bombers all over the Middle East, the revelations about torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Closer to home, the litany of fatal accidents, house fires, petty crime and the occasional homicide become so common as to resemble wallpaper.

Is it any wonder that everybody becomes a Blazers fan? My favorite anecdote: Leaving the gym yesterday morning, I saw an older woman, probably in her 70s, at the front desk. She had a hand on her walker and was bent over, chatting with the receptionist. "I don't know what happened in that fourth quarter, " she said of the game Sunday, when the Blazers lost by a single point. "They couldn't shoot. They couldn't rebound..."

I'm guessing that lady is parked in front of her TV right now, hoping the Blazers will catch fire and rejuvenate all of Rip City (a k a Portland).