Living in Portland, Oregon, I have but one significant professional men's sports team to root for: the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. As season-ticket-buying time rolls around once again, I get a chance to reflect on why I no longer care enough to pay attention to that team, or that league.

A big part of my problem is the Portland team itself, managed by a group of nitwits who have assembled roster after roster of players who are impossible for an intelligent fan to like. Not only don't they win on the court, but by and large they are also losers in life. Drug addicts, attempted rapists, wife beaters, drunk drivers, cop beaters, even female cop beaters, we have had them all here in the Rose City thanks to the Blazers.

Then there is the rest of league, personfied by dominant player Shaquille O'Neal, a powerful and talented man who seems to care little for anything but his own bloated paycheck. Play on the U.S. Olympic team? In the All-Star game? In the world games? Nah. Too busy or hurt, always. And now he doesn't want to play most of the 82-game regular season, either -- he schedules elective surgery for late summer, just in time to miss the first half of the season and the All-Star game.

These owners, these players, they are faxing in a crummy version of what this game used to be. The refs are convicted tax cheats, and many fans are convinced they throw playoff games, too. They won't be getting any more of my money, and I will be steering young people away from them any time I get the chance.

How sad. It used to be such fun to watch and root.