“Thursday morning, Brandon Roy went in for arthroscopic surgery on his knee.”

There it is. Those damn words. Certain ones just flare up in day-glo when you read a news story. Roy. Surgery. Knee. Damn.

I think I took the wrong track when I used pessimism to downplay the expectations of the season. Real life is much worse. This knee issue was the one brought up by Steven A. Smith on draft night two years ago, saying it was a reason why Roy wasn’t taken higher even though he was the most NBA-ready player in that draft. It’s the reason a year ago when Bill Simmons ranked Roy surprisingly low. Now they’ve just been proven right.

We dodged a bullet this time; the surgery was minor and it was during the right time - well into the offseason and still before training camp. Still, it gives the sadness mongers out there something to hang onto. The ones that will say, the Blazers won’t be anything, they’re only one bad jump away from last place.

I say these people need a hobby.

The team is far too well-constructed and the talent overload that some are predicting to be the undoing of the team finds its greatest use in situations like that. The fact thatifwe lost an all star for a bit of time, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for us shows the cohesiveness of the team, the coach, and the front office. The players know work, and they can step in and do whatever job is needed.

Still, I take this kick in the seeds as a little nicer than recent ones. Last year’s DDR fiasco had me doubled over. The saga over Paul Allen potentially selling the team two years ago was a perpetual vice grip on them. This one was just a love tap.

I think that’s how you know that you have arrived in the NBA - even getting hit in the nuts doesn’t seem so bad.