There's that word "affair" again...

"I must admit that I am not the biggest fan of John Canzano. I find a lot of his articles to be glib and self-serving, often times offering up more personal opinions and editorializing than sports."

Not to defend Canzano's choice of guests (an admitted pedohile) on his radio show or anything, but the guy is a columnist, it's HIS JOB to offer his peronsal opinion and editorializing.

That has got to be one of the most annoying, ignorant and unfortunately common complaints lofted at opinion columnists. Not to metion, as has already been pointed out, referring to it as an "affair."

Any number of people could have provided the planned commentary by a Portlander about the atmosphere in Portland at the time. Well known news reporters...other city commissioners...etc. The then mayor was not the only person who could have provided the perspective from outside the team.

I, for example, worked at the Chamber of Commerce at the time...We were tasked by City Hall to arrange a victory parade, IIRC. But then, I'm not a basketball fan and I don't really care much. I was not directly involved in the festivities and avoided them.

Canzano explains his actions by lofting the banner of journalistic integrity? Where does the integrity meter rest on the issue of the town's main sports columnist being paid handsomely ($80k a year WW reported, I believe) by the Blazers' radio station? That why he seems to have taken such a liking to the team in recent times?

This became a story about his (Canzano's) personal integrity, and the purity of pursuing the "Truth, the Bald Faced Truth." Instead of hearing the stories of the city being turned into one giant party, and the civic pride felt at the time, I was assaulted with this self-serving tripe!

This is the heart of my problem with Canzano. Of course as a columnist the point is to render a personal viewpoint on issues and events, and I've got no problem with Canzano being "opinionated" or "editorializing." My problem with Canzano is that he constantly uses issues and events to demonstrate his own moral superiority. It's like when he went to Beijing to cover the Olympics and wrote a column about how the government had cleared away the poor and tattered from the streets (or something along those lines, the memory blurs). Or when he wrote some shocking story about the Juarez when in El Paso for the Sun Bowl. The pretense was that without Canzano, we sheltered readers of the sports page, stuck in our silly games, would never come face to face with the hard truths of the world. We needed Canzano to shine the light for us. That's what gets me about Canzano, and I think this recent incident shows that tendency again. Canzano doesn't really care about sports because sports by itself isn't a big enough platform to support his ego. So this Blazer "anniversary" became not a discussion of the Blazers but a discussion of ... Canzano and Canzano's monumental integrity.