PORTLAND, Ore. — It all started with a 1990 issue of Sports Illustrated. Inside, the address for every NBA team. Roger Licorish was only 10 or 11 at the time and decided he'd write them all a letter, including Portland.
"I just wrote that I was a fan of the game. I was a fan of Clyde Drexler cause he was the face of the team," Licorish said.
The only team that responded: the Portland Trail Blazers.
"When they wrote me back it was like they drafted me that night," he said, laughing.
They not only wrote him back, they sent along a gift basket full of posters, T-shirts and a yearbook of the team.
That simple gesture created a Rip City fan for life. There was only one problem, Licorish didn't know anything about Portland.
"I knew nothing about the city and at the time, we didn't have YouTube and we didn't have the internet like we do now," he said. "I had to get into the history books and learn about Portland."
Licorish is now 43, a dad of two girls and a grandfather. He's passing that love of the Blazers onto them. He still lives in his childhood home. His basement, full of Blazers memorabilia.
"I saved this, because this was the very first ticket," he says in a YouTube video that Lake Oswego native Lucy Martin shot. Martin was at a meeting at his building and noticed a Trail Blazers poster hanging in his office. That's how she learned of his story and how the New York native came to be a Portland fan.
"My love affair for the team is just unbelievable," Licorish said.
He's been to games at the Moda Center and never misses a game on TV. When the team plays in New York, a friend lends him a ticket for every game.
He showed Martin his tattoos, "I got the Rip City tattoo. I got a couple of my favorite players in the history. Clyde is number one, Terry of course."
So, the next time you're watching the Blazers play, he'll be watching too.
Every single minute.
Update April 30:
Roger said Terry Porter called him to say the Blazers are flying Roger out to Portland for Game 3 of the team's series against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night.
