The Official Site of Brandon Roy

Wed, Mar 17th 2010, 10:23

Roy searching for his inner ruthlessness

The Portland Trail Blazers had just lost to the Denver Nuggets, and Brandon Roy(notes) was blaming himself for the defeat. His 12 points had hardly measured up to Carmelo Anthony’s(notes) 30, and with the Blazers clinging to the Western Conference’s last playoff seed, any loss was one they couldn’t afford.

By the time Roy reached the Blazers’ bus on the night of March 7, he had vowed something needed to change. Specifically, himself.

Roy had been raised to believe in a pair of long-held doctrines of sport: Team first. Stay humble.

But even those seemed outdated when weighed against the Blazers’ pressing needs. Roy looked at the game’s top stars, from Kobe Bryant(notes) to LeBron James(notes) to Dwyane Wade(notes) to Dirk Nowitzki(notes), and they all shared one common trait: They’re relentless scorers.

Roy needed to become the same. Four nights later, he dropped 41 points on the Golden State Warriors.

“I look back at [Michael] Jordan, and Kobe recently. Those guys try to dominate. You look at big men like Shaq, they dominate,” Roy said. “It was an edge. I got to get that edge. Even when I play against Carmelo and those guys, they play with that edge. They want to bury you. I’m thinking, ‘I got to get that edge.’ ”

Roy has averaged 27 points on 57 percent shooting in the four games since the Blazers fell to Denver. The Blazers won all four games. He has no plans to dial back his aggressiveness.

“Every day, I got to prepare and it’s not just a switch,” Roy said. “Kobe was saying that. We were about to play in the All-Star game, and he said, ‘Let’s go hard.’ I said, ‘Why do you want to play so hard in the All-Star game?’ He said, ‘It’s not a switch. You have to do it every day.’ I’m learning that now. It’s not a switch.

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