The Portland Trail Blazers hosted their annual Fan Fest Saturday afternoon at the Moda Center. The free event gave an announced crowd of 7,000 fans their first chance to welcome the 2025-26 Trail Blazers and watch them take the floor together as they march toward a new NBA season.<\/p>\n
After some stretching and drills, the Blazers split up the roster into two teams for a scrimmage consisting of two 10-minute halves. Team Black included Jrue Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe, Kris Murray, Jerami Grant, Yang Hansen, Caleb Love, MarJon Beauchamp and Duop Reath. Team Gray featured Blake Wesley, Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Rayan Rupert, Donovan Clingan, Sidy Cissoko, Javonte Cook and Andrew Carr.<\/p>\n
Team Black came away with a 43-42 win following a left-handed floater from Holiday in the closing seconds. Sharpe also gave Team Black a huge boost, scoring 10 points on his way to winning Fan Fest MVP for the second time in his career (hold for applause). The rookie Yang also had some nice moments as Blazers fans gave him a warm welcome to Rip City.<\/p>\n
Here are the main takeaways from the event.<\/p>\n
On the heels of a good training camp in Tualatin<\/a> this week, Sharpe was the standout of Fan Fest. He finished with 10 points on 4\/5 shooting. That shot diet included two made 3s from the left wing, a midrange jumper and a tough one-legged floater from the free throw line that splashed through the net. Most of Sharpe\u2019s makes came off the bounce as he settled into shots after picks from Yang. His handle also looked more jittery and dangerous as he probed the defense.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a glimpse, just a taste [of what\u2019s to come],\u201d Sharpe said about the team\u2019s offense at Fan Fest. \u201cWe\u2019re working every day, and I think it\u2019ll be good for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n Yang\u2019s First Impression<\/p>\n Yang didn\u2019t tear the house down in his Fan Fest debut, but he gave Team Black some good production in the win, including four points. The rookie\u2019s first bucket was his most impressive. In the first half, he caught the ball to the left of the top of the key, turned down an open 3 to attack Clingan\u2019s closeout on the drive, gathered himself in the paint, then used a series of pivots to get up a soft right hook over the fellow 7-footer. Yang\u2019s second bucket came in the pick-and-roll game with his former Summer League teammate Love. Yang caught a bounce pass on the roll and then finished over Clingan for an and-1 off the glass, pumping his fist as the ball went through the net (he missed the free throw).<\/p>\n Yang was maybe most effective with his screen-setting. Several of those screens happened after he gave the ball up to circling guards for dribble handoffs and then bumped the trailing defender. As mentioned above, he helped free up Sharpe in those actions. It was some nice chemistry between the two teammates.<\/p>\n Outside of the offense, Yang\u2019s rebounding didn\u2019t stand out too much, although he and Clingan battled for box-out positioning all afternoon. Opposing players \u2014 particularly, Clingan \u2014 bested Yang\u2019s paint protection for finishes at the cup multiple times, but Yang did reject an aggressive one-handed dunk attempt from Wesley. The play elicited ooo\u2019s and ahhh\u2019s from the crowd.<\/p>\n Speaking of new Blazers guard Blake Wesley, he also produced solid plays at Fan Fest. The 6-foot-5 guard drove through the defense for some nice finishes in the paint. He also initially hounded Holiday on that final possession, giving the veteran guard\u2019s handle some trouble at halfcourt before he course-corrected. The speed and length stand out about Wesley\u2019s game. They lend some support to Portland head coach Chauncey Billups\u2019 saying at training camp<\/a> that Wesley has a shot at gaining minutes in the rotation with guard Scoot Henderson out due to injury.<\/p>\n Holiday got to play hero in the end. With Team Black trailing by one point with about 20 seconds remaining, the ball was in the 35-year-old veteran\u2019s hands for winning time. After fending off the aforementioned pressure from Wesley, Holiday regained control and then drove into the paint, Euro-stepping his way into a tough, left-handed floater over Clingan that went in with two seconds left. Camara\u2019s half court heave at the buzzer barely hit the backboard, and that was game.<\/p>\n This year, the Blazers put a spin on their tradition of lighthearted rookie hazing at Fan Fest. Instead of forcing Portland\u2019s rookies to sing songs in front of the crowd, Yang and Love participated in a \u201cchoreographed\u201d dance number with a few members from the BlazerDancers. Blazers veteran Damian Lillard had the pleasure of introducing the duo. They also had to wear small, colorful and sparkly backpacks for the performance (backpacks they\u2019ll be forced to carry around all season). Take a look for yourself.<\/p>\n With training camp and Fan Fest in the books, we are getting close to the tipoff of preseason basketball. The Blazers play their preseason opener on the road against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers hosted their annual Fan Fest Saturday afternoon at the Moda Center. 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