PORTLAND — They roared. Oh my, did they roar.



It’s what you do when you see history. It’s what you vocalize when you witness greatness. It’s what awakens the gatekeeper to Legend and allows a moment to enter.



So for five minutes … 10 minutes … 15 minutes … they roared in Portland. It was just past 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night in late April, and the boxscore will say the roar came from 20,241 at the Moda Center, but there might have been a few ghosts in there, too.



Bill Walton. Sam Bowie. Greg Oden. Brandon Roy. The memories that have haunted this Portland Trail Blazers franchise were in those roars, released from the guts, the hearts and the minds of this fanbase.



It has been a franchise with spectacular failures and tortured decisions. The 15-point lead in Game 7 in Los Angeles. Bowie over Jordan. Martell Webster over Chris Paul. And most recently, a humilating sweep in the 2018...