TUALATIN — Portland is no doubt a trendy city, but it hasn’t seen fashion this cutting-edge in a while.
It is apparel donned by only the city’s elite — celebrities drawing the attentions of tens of thousands every time they perform.
They are, of course, the “3 Goggles,” eyewear sported whenever certain Trail Blazers knock down a 3-pointer, form the “A-OK” sign with each hand and place them over their eyes.
You can just feel Milan taking notice.
“I love it,” said Portland point guard Patty Mills, one of the first to sport the goggles. “They’ve come a long way since I’ve gotten involved with them. I just don’t want to take it too far.”
When fellow Blazer Rudy Fernandez would struggle from 3-point distance, Mills used to joke that he couldn’t see very well.
So when Fernandez began knocking down his threes, he would look Mills’ way and put on the “3 Goggles” as if to say “I can see with these on.”
The fad has grown to the point that Mills, Fernandez and Wesley Matthews slip the goggles on almost every time they hit one from deep, while Brandon Roy has sampled them from time to time.
There’s even a “3 Goggles” T-shirt.
The question is, how does the rest of the team feel about them?
“As long as they keep making threes,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “They can wear that shirt if they keep knocking them down.”
Portland point guard Armon Johnson is supportive of the goggles, but doesn’t foresee himself joining the craze.
“I don’t put those on,” the rookie said. “That’s not me right there. They (his teammates) got their own little thing.”
LaMarcus Aldridge is yet to peer through a “3 Goggle” lens, mainly because he has hit only three 3-pointers this year, and those were before the trend really took off.
He did, however, say that they help to keep the team loose in a year that has been trying to say the least.
But would he wear them if he sank another one from beyond the arc?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I might be too happy that I actually made a 3-pointer.”
Alridge ready for breakthrough?
Seeing how he’s averaged 29.2 points and 12.7 rebounds over his past four games, Aldridge is certainly starting to look like an All-Star.
But he isn’t talking like one.
Thursday the power forward was asked what kind of case he’s building toward making the All-Star team for the first time in his career.
He didn’t bite.
“I’m not even going to talk about it. That’s been my thing, I’m not talking about it,” said Aldridge, who is averaging 19.1 points and 8.5 rebounds this year. “I’ve had an emphasis on it before, but I don’t think that makes it any easier or harder.”
Aldridge is fourth in the league in total dunks (52), trailing only the Clippers’ Blake Griffin (69), the Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire (62) and the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan (54). He said that dunking can be painful, sometimes even leaving bruises on his forearm.
Couldn’t he just tone it down?
“No, because if you go soft, they’re going to block it,” Aldridge said. “It hurts, but it’s kind of worth it, I think.”
