Welcome back to the countdown of my favorite reporting moments from the Portland Trail Blazers season, a digital scrapbook of my first season on the job as the Blazer’s Edge beat writer.

As a reminder, “favorite” doesn’t necessarily mean “positive” for the Blazers or even for me. Rather, the countdown is a list of the most interesting or memorable moments to be a part of over the 2024-25 campaign, spanning from September’s Media Day to the Blazers’ regular-season finale in April.

Today’s installment will cover Nos. 10-9 on the list. Let’s get to it!

No. 10: The Story of the Remix

Back in the fall, I wrote a big profile on the business team behind the Rip City Remix as they prepared to head into the franchise’s second-ever season. While looking ahead, the story reflected on the journey the business side took over the inaugural season of the Blazers’ G League affiliate and what it’s like to launch a minor-league sports franchise from scratch under an accelerated timeline.

This was the story from this season that took the most legwork, the most hair-pulling to put together, and the most hours. By those virtues, it must be included on this countdown. But more importantly, I like what the Remix team is trying to build, setting the franchise up as a low-cost, accessible entry into professional sports tailored toward community and children. I like that home games at the Chiles Center feel more like a small, local operation, compared to the corporate feel of the NBA. I enjoyed getting to dive deep into those aspects of the Remix story.

The story also gave me a reason to interview local celebrity Blane Hartleb. He’s the outrageous spokesman from the Outrageous Audio commercials and a man my family has quoted around the house from time to time. Hartleb worked into the story because he starred in the Remix’s season two schedule release video, listing off the slate of home games with that trademark high-energy, high-pitched voice. (For the record, he doesn’t speak like that over the phone).

I was kicking myself that I couldn’t work this into the finished piece, but Hartleb told me a wonderful story about how he became a Trail Blazers fan. The year was 1977, he was around 10 years old and had recently moved to Portland from Maine. That’s when he was in the backseat of his dad’s 1973 Cadillac. With his parents in the front two seats, they were driving near Lloyd Center when all of a sudden they got stuck in a traffic jam of cars and people celebrating in the street. It turns out, the raucous was because the Blazers had just defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to become World Champions.

“We were stopped in traffic, and somebody handed my dad a champagne bottle,” Hartleb recalled. “He took a swig off it. My mom took a swig off it, and then they handed it out the car to another person. It was so awesome. I remember it so clear, everybody in the street celebrating. … People were on cars. But the champagne thing as a 10-year-old, you know how some of those things just impact you, and you see it inside your head over and over?”

Hartleb continued: “My dad was a dentist up at OHSU. I was like, ‘Dad, what are you doing!?’ It was so out of character.”

The companion piece to the Remix profile was a man-on-the-street style story I got from a Remix home game in late November. I interviewed various parents around the Chiles Center who attended the game with young children. Their responses, and the scenes of kids running around, showed the business side’s vision for the fan experience in action.

Conor Bergin

No. 9: Matisse Thybulle’s Defensive Philosophy

Blazers wing Matisse Thybulle plays a unique defensive style, but he also approaches that side of the ball with a unique demeanor. A lot of defensive specialists are known for their intense trash-talking and fiery personalities — the Draymond Greens, Tony Allens and Ron Artests of the world come to mind here. But Thybulle seems to approach defense with a calm glee, more likely to smile after a defensive gem than talk smack to his opponent like he’s Tyrese Haliburton’s dad or something.

At Trail Blazers Media Day on Sept. 30, I asked Thybulle about his demeanor and what drives his defensive motor. Thybulle’s intelligent response about his defensive philosophy was probably my favorite quote of the season (you can hear it at the 4:26 mark of the video below):

For me, it’s just fun. A lot of the narrative or verbiage in sports in general, but especially in defense, it’s like ‘war’ and ‘battle’ and ‘defeat,’ and it becomes this life or death thing. And I’m like, I just enjoy creating plays. For me, it’s like you’re kind of outwitting them and whether it’s like a physical battle or not, I’m able to use my tools to overcome yours and just enjoying that little game as opposed to shutting someone down or destroying someone.

Injuries would go on to severely limit Thybulle this season. They forced him to miss 67 games before he made his season debut on March 16 against the Toronto Raptors. It was disappointing because it would’ve been interesting to see what Thybulle could’ve added to Portland’s improving defense over the course of a full season. From a reporting perspective, it was disappointing because he’s one of the most interesting interviews on the team and the injuries meant Media Day was his only formal interview until his March return. He still managed to register some impressive performances and a few more quality soundbites over the last 15 games of the season.

Early signs point to Rip City getting another season of Thybulle defense and interviews. At his exit interview on April 13, Thybulle indicated he intends to pick up his $11.6 million player-option with the Blazers for next season.

“That’s what I told most of the coaches in the locker room: I can’t wait to get a full season under our belts,” he said. “Because this whole year, we forged our identity as being a defensive team. I was just champing at the bit. Me and [assistant coach Roy Rogers] are talking about how fun it would be having me out there as well, imagining the lineups we could throw together. Chauncey getting his extension is really exciting and definitely makes me optimistic for running it back with these guys.”

Note: It was reported this morning by The Oregonian’s Aaron Fentress that the Blazers will not renew Rogers’ contract, so the assistant coach won’t be overseeing the defense next season.