FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The Western Conference All Star locker room, will be filled with reporters, all interviewing players, giving multiple interviews at once. Kobe Bryant, and Yao Ming are all handling at least 15 reporters each, answering questions from all of them, as they frantically note it down. Most of the other players are getting this large number of interviewers as well. All except for one man. Brandon Roy stands in the corner, having 2 reporters with him, one who often runs to Kobe Bryant to interview him and note it down. Roy later laughs it off, saying he enjoyed giving one on one interviews with them. And this event seems to represent his entire young career. Right from the start, from his Rookie of the Year award to now, no one seems to give him a second notice. Atleast from the fans point of view. The coaches give him the respect he deserves. Proof? He's been an All Star, twice, already in his 3 years playing. Being selected to the All Star team usually is associated to being a fan favorite, or atleast very popular with them. For Brandon Roy? Not the case. Both of his selections were as reserves, so he was picked by the 28 coaches in the league who aren't blessed to coach him, and the 1 coach who actually gets to coach him in the All Star Game.

This year, the Portland Trailblazers have the fifth seed in the West. They're on track to make the playoffs for the first time in many years. And the man leading the charge? None other than Brandon Roy. Yet, even in the MVP votings, which aren't fan based, he is not even listed in the top 10. He is averaging 23 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1.2 steals, while shooting 48% from the field, 38% from beyond the arc, and 83% from the charity stripe. Stats like these are extremely rare this league, and are even less in number from teams which actually are contenders. Kevin Durant puts up numbers like that. However, HIS team is one of the bottom feeders in the West. In my opinion, Brandon Roy should be in the Top 10 MVP votings, if nothing else. He's a do-it-all player, with an efficient scoring rate.

 One excuse for Brandon Roy is his injury rates. That is false. Brandon Roy has missed more than 8 games in a season once in his career, in his rookie year, where he, granted, missed 25 games. It was, however, a heel injury, something one can't avoid. On a side note, to most people who call players injury prone, basically, you are accusing them of bad luck. In most cases, it's bad luck that you get hurt doing what the rest of the league does. Granted, Gerald Wallace, and at one point Dwyane Wade, took it too far, but for the rest of the league?

Brandon Roy is the only active player in the league to have 10 steals in a game, at any point in his career. However, despite this, he has never averaged more than 1.2 steals in a game. The reason? He has focused himself to play on-the-ball defense, which is the most important defense. Off the ball defense is risky, and often can free up a player for an open shot, but on-the-ball defense is the type of defense when you play defense on someone like glue to paper. Could Brandon Roy put up 2+ steals per game? Of course he could. But if he did that, he would have to sacrifice some of the real defense he played, so while it raised his steals clip by a small amount, it would weaken his overall defense, and clear up opposing players to make open shots. He is taking a similar road to Kobe Bryant in defense, sacrificing his athleticism, and what he could have been in steals, to actually make himself a good defender.

Another reason Brandon Roy deserves all this credit I give him is his clutch play. Though not particularly known for his clutch play, often an after-though(actually, an after-after-after-after-after-thought) to Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Lebron James even in this category, Brandon Roy currently leads the league in game deciding shots in the final 20 seconds of a game in the league, with 27, as of March 14, 2009. Perhaps his best one yet was a 30 foot shot at the buzzer to win the game against the Houston Rockets, on November 6th, 2008. He's had game winning jump shots, layups, dunks, anything it took to win the game. In fact, just by this, if it wasn't for him, the Trailblazers would have 27 less victories then they do now. In reality, they would have alot more than 27 less wins if they didn't have him, but lets keep that aside.

 And so are my arguments for Brandon Roy. One may or may not think he is a great player, but he will dominate games regardless of whether fans love him or not. This is how he always was, and how he always will be. So goes, the Tale of the Quiet Assassin.