Brandon Roy, Back To We

The money is nice. No one, including Brandon Roy, is going to deny that. But what brought a smile to Roy’s face as he sat at a table answering questions from the media while holding his son on his lap wasn’t the thought of dollars being electronically routed to his checking account. More than anything, he was simply happy to have the whole ordeal over and done with.

It’s not hard to understand why. Of course there’s the relief of financial stability, but that wasn’t issue, as there was never any doubt Roy was going to get paid. The real source of anxiety for Roy throughout the negotiating process was being in a situation where he had to focus on himself rather than the team. It was uncharted and unwelcomed territory for the two-time All-Star.

“That’s the biggest thing I was struggling with,” said Roy. “I’ve never been a ‘me’ guy, never worried about myself. Now here it is I have to be a little selfish. My agent is like ‘You have to be a little bit more selfish in this situation.’ And I’m like, ‘I just want to get this done.’ I want to play with my teammates. I don’t like this process, and I think that’s what made this hard. But at the same time I’m glad it’s over with.”

The distain for the process is probably one of the reasons Roy said he would sign a ten-year contract if he had the option. He knew he was going to be a Trail Blazer, but he still had to go through negotiations, despite knowing what the ultimate outcome would be.

“There were days were I was upset and I wanted it to be done, like, now,” said Roy, “because I didn’t like people calling saying ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘Why aren’t you a Trail Blazer? Why aren’t they signing you?’ I didn’t like that process. For me it was like, can I just get it over with? But there was never a moment I felt like I wasn’t going to be a part of this team. I couldn’t even imagine being on another team. All I know is University of Washington and Portland. There was never a moment when [playing for another team] crossed my mind.”