Chris MannixofSports Illustratedhas a nice feature piece on Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, which focuses onhis dependability．-------------------------- The quiet, unflappable 25-year-old has always been dependable. At Seagoville High he carried his team to the Texas Class 4A quarterfinals, the Dragons' best showing in 19 years. As a sophomore at Texas he was the Big 12 defensive player of the year and helped the Longhorns advance to the Elite Eight in the 2006 NCAA tournament. He turned pro after that and was selected second by the Bulls, who shipped his rights to the Blazers for No. 4 pick Tyrus Thomas and forward Viktor Khryapa. The 6'11" Aldridge was a starter at power forward by his second year and since then has averaged at least 17 points and seven rebounds each season. This year, with Portland hampered by knee injuries to guard Brandon Roy (34 games missed) and center Greg Oden (out for the season), Aldridge got off to a pedestrian start. "[My mom's cancer] didn't distract me during games," he says. "But it wore me down mentally because of how much I was thinking about it all day. After a while I told myself that I was going to turn this into a positive. I was going to use it as motivation to make the All-Star team for her." --------------------------h/t: @pdxjay-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter