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About 250 Portland Trail Blazer fans camped outside in the cold at the Rose Garden to wait in line to buy tickets for the playoffs. The first person in line showed up at noon and will have to wait a full 24-hours in line. Thanks to Tom Boyd for the heads up on this. I was supposed to go in the morning, but Boyd heard on the radio that people were already out there after tonight's game. I decided it would make much better pictures in the middle of the night than in the daytime.

Goodbye

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During the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder I overheard Portland Trail Blazer GM Kevin Pritchard ask official Jack Nies if the game would be his last. Turns out that it was indeed his last game of a 29 year career. I thought it made a nice picture as the other officials working the game gave Nies a hug.

Blazers vs Lakers

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Doesn't get much better than the Lakers at the Rose Garden. The Blazers are really playing their best ball of the season as they enter the playoffs for the first time since the 2003 season.

Blazers clinch playoffs

Went on the road with the Portland Trail Blazers to photograph them clinching their spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2003. There was talk about great locker room access if all went as planned. Well, it didn't go as planned. In fact -- worse case scenario happened. The spot was clinched with the Suns getting blown out by Dallas before Portland even played.

Since it was not a Blazers win that clinched it for them, the PR folks decided not to let me into the locker room. What made it worse is that Portland lost to Houston. So, I had to try to get pictures of the team making the playoffs in a game that they lost. Ugh.

Anyway, I photographed this picture of Steve Blake on the trip.

Access is so important and so difficult to get in professional sports. For that reason alone I think photographing professional sports is way overrated.

Remote control

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I think my remote camera bailed me out tonight. I didn't have much that I liked from my position on the floor. Here are a few others from the same remote camera. It was mounted on the standard just below the level of the backboard.