I said in my last Al-Farouq Aminu vid (just two days ago!), that Blazers fans were “Going to turn on Aminu once he scores four points in game four and the Blazers get swept out of the playoffs”.
As you can see from the video title, Aminu scored way more than four points, and so Blazers fans have no reason to turn on him. They do, however have reason to turn on pretty much everyone else on the team, because the “swept” part of that sentence definitely just happened. Also they can turn on lots of the front-office people, and much of the coaching staff. This was not the most embarrassing chokejob ever performed by an NBA team in the playoffs, not even close, but it was pretty bad.
The point of having superstars on your team is that they step up when things get tough. If you’re relying on role-players (like Aminu) to do so, you’re going to be in trouble. I’m not naming names here, but I’m looking at Portland’s roster and the superstars that are on it did not do their part tonight. Also, there is no glory in being a “Soundcloud rapper”. Again, not naming names.
So good on Aminu for showing up tonight. The Pelicans obviously weren’t respecting his trebuchet threes, and he made them pay, just like last game. I think that’s enough vindication to last for a whole off-season.