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BRANDON ROY
AGE: 39
BEST KNOWN FOR: Reviving Blazermania with clutch shots.
He didn’t know it in the moment, but Brandon Roy was front and center for the end of Dame Time in Portland.
Roy, the sweet-shooting Trail Blazers guard who left town shortly before the arrival of Damian Lillard, unofficially returned to Rip City earlier this year, serving as the Blazers’ representative on the made-for-TV NBA draft lottery in May. The juju worked: Portland moved up two spots in the lottery to the No. 3 pick. They picked Scoot Henderson—and Lillard asked for a trade a week later.
Draft night was one of Roy’s first public appearances with the Blazers since sitting courtside for a game more than a decade ago. A raucous standing ovation that night, and positive response to his lottery presence this year, has made it clear Blazermaniacs would happily accept Roy’s return.
And for good reason. He joined the team at a nadir in popularity and immediately reinvigorated the fan base. For a specific generation of fan, it felt like Roy saved the franchise entirely. Roy’s all-too-brief career (2006-2013) has taken on a mythic quality. In his absence, wistful laments about Roy’s lost All-NBA seasons have replaced what-ifs about Arvydas Sabonis and the Iron Curtain at local watering holes.
The time away from the spotlight, however, hasn’t necessarily been restful for Roy. Much like his playing career, Roy’s public life since departing NBA has been tumultuous, with sky-high peaks tempered by moments of frustration and near tragedy.
Roy has been a wildly successful high school coach in Seattle in recent years. He led the Nathan Hale High School boys basketball team to a perfect 29-0 record and national championship during the 2016-17 season. He won the Naismith Boys High School Coach of the Year award too. Coach Roy then switched to his alma mater, Garfield High School, and won state championships in 2018, 2020 and 2023. Several of his protegés have gone on to the NBA, including Michael Porter Jr., who won a championship last year as a member of the Denver Nuggets.
“My ultimate goal is not to coach in the NBA but to build a real solid foundation at my alma mater,” Roy told Sports Illustrated in 2020. “I don’t feel challenged to make it to the next level. I feel challenged right here to make it at this level.”
A cloud, however, has lingered over the championship sunshine for Roy. Despite the success, Roy took leaves from his coaching position during the 2018-19, and 2021-22 seasons. Roy has publicly disclosed the personal struggles he has faced during those times. He was shot while visiting family in Compton, Calif., in 2017, started divorce proceedings during his time at Nathan Hale High School, and has undergone surgeries for back pain and a torn Achilles tendon.
Combine all that turmoil with the lingering frustration of a playing career cut short by six surgeries, and it’s easy to understand why he told The Athletic’s Jason Quick in 2020 that he had suffered recurring nightmares after the shooting and struggled to confront his own unhappiness.
“I had to first acknowledge that I wasn’t happy,” Roy told Quick. “But for me, it was hard to say I was unhappy. It was like me saying I was a loser…a failure.”
Roy’s return to the Blazers’ fold, however, seems to presage an upswing. (He didn’t return calls from WW.)
“Some of it for me is I’m getting older,’’ Roy told Quick in May. “I feel like being away was good for me, and it gave me time to refocus and reset my life. So, this is me just trying to keep up the relationship—I think not only with [general manager] Joe [Cronin], but the entire Blazers organization. This is kind of the first step at it.”
For their part, the Blazers never seemed to forget Roy’s legacy during his time away either. Carmelo Anthony was told that No. 7 was not available in 2020. A jersey retirement ceremony would make one helluva reunion for Roy and the city.