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Like the 7Up bottle on Northeast Sandy Boulevard or the purple octopus at Greek Cusina downtown, the silver Blazers on Broadway basketball is a remnant of Old Portland that some may have forgotten about. It used to advertise a basketball store in downtown Portland in the 1990s.
But the silver orb now has new life atop the vintage basketball shop Back to the Basket on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard—just in time for the Portland Trail Blazers’ first playoff run in five years.
A crane hoisted the ball up on top of 3405 SE Hawthorne Blvd. the morning of April 22, and the reaction has been all love, says Back to the Basket owner Troy Douglass.
“I think the timing with the Blazers winning and being in the playoffs multiplies it,” Douglass says. “Especially if we win Game 3, the city’s going to go bananas.”
Douglass sourced the Blazers on Broadway signage on Facebook Marketplace about three months ago from a seller in Estacada. Douglass snapped it up right away, and his father has helped him transport and store it since then. Dad also built a custom tripod and support beams for the ball to be stable on top of the roof.
Douglass was waiting for the right moment to debut the Blazers on Broadway ball, and he knew Portland’s first home playoff games—happening April 24 and 26—was it.
“I felt like this would be a cool way to bolster that energy,” he says.
If you’re looking for a T-shirt to wear to Moda Center this weekend—heaven knows the new owner won’t give you one—consider the ball an extra-large reminder.
