I plan to open the comments up again later today have opened the comments… and I must say it’s been a nice reprieve.

The reaction has been interesting, too. I would say 80 percent of the e-mails I’ve received about closing the comments were favorable to my decision.  A whole lot of people thought it was time for a break and that a lot of the comments were getting out of hand. I apologize for having to make the move, because I like comments. But I just didn’t feel I had the time to police them as well as I should have.

I’m still not sure I do, in fact. But we’re going to give it another shot.

The other 20 percent were rather varied. A few people figure that it’s their God-given right to be able to comment on anything and everything written on the web. And it drove them crazy when they couldn’t leave comments.

Some people thought I shut down the comments because they were growing increasingly critical of me. That’s not true, by the way. I’m accustomed to the criticism and if you’ve ever heard “Dwight’s Greatest Hits” — a compilation of voicemails saved from my days of writing columns at The Oregonian — on 95.5 The Game you’ll know what I mean.

No, what bothered me most was commenter-on-commenter crime. The way people treated each other. I hate to be the venue hosting such hostility. It got nasty and sometimes way too personal.

And another thing that got to me was just how many comments certain people were leaving. Seriously now, if you find yourself leaving 10 or 15 comments on one blog post, you really ought to think about something else to do with your life that might be more productive.

So we’ll start allowing the comments again with a few words of caution:

– Please be nice to each other, even if you can’t be nice to me.

– Understand this blog is free and thus try to treat everyone here with the same respect you’d have for someone opening their home or heart to you.

– Try to limit the number of comments you make on each blog to two or three. Is that too much to ask? If you find yourself being drawn into an argument with another commenter, take a step back from the keyboard, take a deep breath and go link to another fine blog in my blogroll. Take your mind off this for a while.

– Please don’t troll here. If someone calls you a troll, by the way, there’s at least a 50 percent chance you are one — so give it some thought. Let’s try not to intentionally get under each other’s skin, OK? People get emotional about their teams and their beliefs and it’s hard enough not to arouse deep feelings without just intentionally setting out to do so in the first place.

– Debate is great. That’s why there are comment sections. Feel free to call me or anyone else out. But try to do so in a factual way without being personal. It’s really about the argument, not the argumentors, right?

Thanks for reading my blog. You pay me back by listening to me on the radio on 95.5 The Game from 6-9 a.m., on the Morning Sports Page with Gavin Dawson and Chad Doing — it is far and away the top-rated morning sports show in the market. Or by watching “Talkin’ Ball” 30 minutes after every Blazer game shown on Comcast Sportsnet Northwest. It’s a fun show.

Or you can really do me (and yourselves) a favor by wandering into a great men’s clothing store on Northwest 16th and Glisan called “Este’s” — it’s a first-class, old-time Portland place where the service and quality are almost as outstanding as the price. Those guys even manage to make me look pretty respectable, so you can only imagine what they could do for you. And it may be the only joint in town where if you tell them I sent you, you won’t be thrown out.

Again, thanks for coming here. I really enjoy doing this and have met so many very nice people here. Thanks, too, to my pal “Bean” — Chris Snethen – for all the tech support. You ought to check out his great blog right here.

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Tags: Blogs, Chris Snethen, comments, Dwight Jaynes, dwightjaynes.com

The blog isn’t going anywhere. Just the comments. I may not post anything today — just a bit of a one-day vacation. But am not retiring from blogging — just taking a break from those sometimes insulting comments.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, dwightjaynes.com

SportsbyBrooks has a really nice analysis of what it means and it’s interesting stuff. Turns out, it’s all about ESPN:

Look at ESPN. With the majority of our only truly national sports network’s revenue derived from contractual agreements to broadcast NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA hoops and football games, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that ESPN’s news reporting operation could be compromised by those financial arrangements.

Add in the fact that ESPN has no major national sports media competitor and now tell me what incentive ESPN has to report negative news about anything involving those league partners?

Of course, you already know all that if you visit me regularly. You see the stories that we produce daily that in many cases have every right to be reported nationally.

Say a sports blog breaks an original story that portrays one of ESPN’s league partners in an unflattering light. Because ESPN doesn’t have to fear another national network competitor widely distributing that blog’s story – because no such competitor exists – why would ESPN acknowledge the story? (Happens every single day, friends.)

That’s where TMZSports.com will come in. Harvey Levin doesn’t have to worry about a college football broadcast contract worth hundreds of millions when investigating Charlie Weis‘ on-the-record claim that Pete Carroll was living with a grad student in Malibu. Levin doesn’t have to worry about getting press credentials to future USC games, or getting access to Carroll for interviews.

Most importantly, Levin has the desire and the ability to distribute what he finds out about Carroll’s living arrangement to a large enough audience that the story will break through into the mainstream. Something independent sports blogs with huge scoops are largely incapable of.

Don’t think for a minute that ESPN’s beaten-down competitors aren’t also aware of this and will pick up TMZSports.com exclusives soley to force ESPN’s hand on inevitable, embarrasing stories dug up by Levin & Co

The sports media monopoly created by ESPN hath wrought a perfect storm for TMZSports.com to not only succeed, but to turn the industry upside down. Because not only will TMZSports.com itself quickly break into the mainstream, but its prominence will cause previously myopotic sports media consumers to suddenly consider a sports blogosphere that has been, to this point, largely ignored on an astonishing scale.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, ESPN, SportsbyBrooks, TMZ

I will be at the Blazer practice facility today with the rest of the media, but I’ll also be taking part in some way in the Comcast-95.5 The Game coverage of the draft.

I’ll be jumping in once in a while with Brian Wheeler live from the PF, with updates, speculation or just goofing around. If you want the local, Trail Blazer spin on the draft, I’d advise you go tune to 95.5 in your cars or Comcast Sportsnet on your TVs for complete coverage from start to (well past) the finish.

If something big happens, I’ll get a blog post up, too, and will try to get a few Tweets up on the Twitter page just to stay in touch.

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Tags: 95.5 The Game, Brian Wheeler, Comcast Sportsnet, Dwight Jaynes, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers

A lot of bloggers and media people are all over the workout scene. As a media guy, you don’t get to see much of the actual workouts — just a few minutes at the end. Then you talk to the players afterward.

Does it interest you? I mean, I’m just curious. I haven’t been out there, haven’t written anything about it. Certainly you can find all you need from Blazers Edge and The Oregonian. I just can’t get all that juiced up about it. Was going to go out this morning because the talent level today is a bit higher than it’s been.

But on the other hand, really, do you care? Last season it seemed to me that in terms of evaluating the Trail Blazers’ eventual choice in the first round of the draft, all of the workout stuff was a bit of a smokescreen.

If I could sit and watch an entire workout — actually try to discern whether a guy could play or not — it might be different. But that isn’t ever going to happen. Agents of these players would never allow it.

So what do you think? Is dwightjaynes.com letting you down a little bit in the area of workout coverage? Are you dying for my reaction after interviewing Joe Ingles or Terrel Harris?

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Tags: draft workouts, Dwight Jaynes, dwightjaynes.com, NBA Draft, Portland Trail Blazers

The kids over at Bust a Bucket are bored. There’s no more games to watch and so far, not a lot of off-season news of substance.

So the guys got together with friends, drafted full rosters of former Blazers and are playing out a season using computer simulation. It’s a new take on fantasy basketball and a fascinating idea that certainly helps you realize how much talent has gone through this franchise over the years.

They asked me to take a look at their rosters and rate them, which I’ve done. It’s the kind of thing you get asked when you’re one of the few people on the planet aside from Bill Schonely who has actually seen all those guys play in person. But I’m going to be watching to see how it turns out and I invite you to do the same.

And, by the way, if Walton’s team doesn’t win, the whole thing is a farce, guys.

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Tags: Bust a Bucket, computer simulation, Dwight Jaynes, Trail Blazers

My pal, Bean, is Portland’s most versatile blogger and one hell of a guy. Here he is with yet another blog — he’s got some you probably don’t even know about but I won’t blow his cover – that details what he’s planning for the summer. It’s a take on one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, “The Summer of George.”

It’s The Summer of Bean and I’ll do what I can to help.

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Tags: Blogs, Dwight Jaynes, Summer of Bean

Just because it’s the off-season doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot going on with the Trail Blazers. Over at Blazers Edge Ben and Dave are beginning their usual off-season project of evaluating each Blazer player and you ought to swing by and take a look. Sean at Oregonlive’s Blazer Blog is back with his popular “You be the GM” feature and you can find Ben’s assessment of Steve Blake and Wendell’s look at Channing Frye up there already.

Sean asked me to chip in with a look at Rudy Fernandez and I think it will appear Thursday. I’ll get the link when it’s available but I think you’ll like it — and maybe even be surprised by some of my conclusions.

Tonight, it’s the first summer edition of “Talkin’ Ball” on Comcast Sportsnet at 6 o’clock. We’ll still be at The Agency and joining us tonight, I understand, is one of our most popular guest panelists, Laura Green, fresh off covering a first-round series for TNT.

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Tags: Blazers Edge, Comcast Sportsnet, Dwight Jaynes, Laura Green, Oregonlive Blazer Blog, Rudy Fernandez, Talkin' Ball, The Agency, Trail Blazers

Now there is a blog for all the well-meaning but misguided people who want to “save” Memorial Coliseum.

Look, you can be opposed to everything Merritt Paulson or Sam Adams has proposed. You can hate soccer and minor-league baseball and you can be against baseball evacuating PGE Park. But I’m telling you this right now: If you think Memorial Coliseum hasn’t outlived its usefulness to the city of Portland you simply don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You obviously haven’t been inside it for an event in the past 10 years.

The old barn was fine for its time, a half century ago. In today’s world, nobody wants to be a tenant there — even the Winter Hawks, who are smartly just working this thing to try to get the best possible lease at the Rose Garden. The coliseum is empty most of the time — with good reason — because it’s inadequate as a spectator facility.

The concourses are too small, the bathrooms too few and the concession stands too outdated.

Don’t talk to me, either, about somebody’s ridiculous plan to turn it into some sort of athletic club on steroids. There are athletic clubs all over town and a good portion of them are losing money. We don’t need another one.

And please, don’t talk about it as being sacred because it’s a memorial to fallen veterans. The “memorial” part of Memorial Coliseum is a dank, usually empty pool on the northeast corner of the building, located below ground where nobody ever sees it and it’s been in disrepair for decades. It’s an insult, rather than a memorial.

Hey, nobody has better memories of that building than I do. I was at the first Portland Buckaroo game. The first Blazer game. Watched the Dream Team’s every game there. Saw the Blazers win a title and play for two others there.

But it’s over, folks. I don’t care what plan you choose for that area, the building has got to come down. Its time has come and gone and don’t insult its proud heritage by using it as a hostage because you don’t like the Paulsons, or the mayor or soccer.

Just let it go.

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Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Memorial Coliseum, Merritt Paulson, PGE Park, Rose Garden, Rose Quarter, Sam Adams

Sometimes what goes on Behind the Locker Room Door should stay there:

As he is answering, Webster is squealing across the way. Blake has passed gas and Webster is calling him out.

“And he stood up to do it!” Webster laughs.

Roy joins in.

“Hey, farts need oxygen,” Roy says, imitating the motion.

It makes Roy remember a game earlier this season – he thinks it was San Antonio – when Blake dropped a bomb as the team was headed out for the opening tip. The deed was delivered at the area on the sideline where players wipe their feet on a sticky pad to make their sneakers more tacky.

“I went up to that sticky pad, and oh man, I was about to pass right out,” Roy said in his unique tone, which includes saying the last two words real quick, almost together.

Blake grins proudly at the memory.

I said it couldn’t have been any worse than Zach Randolph, who was notorious for brutal, practice-stopping gas. The players disagreed.

The title for worst ever, they say, can only be held by Raef LaFrentz.

“No, no. That’s gotta be Raef,” Aldridge said. “And he be like, ‘Yep. That’s me. Right here. Thank you. That’s me.’” All the while, Aldridge is imitating Raef by holding his hand above his head, pointing at himself.

Blake concurs, saying that Raef is the only guy who ever cleared the entire middle section of Blazer One.

“Oh man,” Roy says, his face crinkling at the memory. “I be about to jump out of that plane that day.” 

Congratulations to my pal, Jason Quick, for today’s example of what separates “Internet journalism” from the print kind. (And for the best Brandon Roy quote of the season: “Hey, farts need oxygen.” I am, though, at a loss to explain what sort of “motion” Roy was imitating.)

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Tags: Behind the Locker Room Door, Brandon Roy, Dwight Jaynes, farts, Jason Quick, Martell Webster, Portland Trail Blazers, Raef LaFrentz, Steve Blake