Youth movement

“Boy Wonder” is bringing his young, exciting Portland Trail Blazers basketball team to Kansas City’s Sprint Center on Friday night. It’s a Brandon Roy/Greg Oden/LaMarcus Aldridge-led squad expected to vie for an NBA playoff berth after last year’s respectable 41-41 campaign. “I believe our team is ready. I don’t know if we are the best, but we are the youngest (team in NBA), that’s for sure,” said 41-year-old former Kansas University point guard Kevin Pritchard, nicknamed Boy Wonder for his relative youth and series of successful roster moves since 2006. “Hopefully we are a team on the rise and will put on a good show,” Pritchard added of the Blazers’ 7 p.m. exhibition game against the Atlanta Hawks in downtown Kansas City. Pritchard since 2006 has rid the organization of problematic players Zach Randolph and Sebastian... [read full story]