The NaviRoy!

T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 1 5 , 2 0 0 9

Last year about this time, the Portland Trailblazers sent out fun gifts to journalists and other executives who take place in the choosing of the remaining roster slots for the NBA All-Star game. The gift? An iPod shuffle equipped with a fun marketing ploy calling it the iRoy. The iRoy came complete with information, stats, and highlight videos of Brandon Roy, leader of the young Portland Trailblazers team. The Blazers staff scored, and Brandon Roy was named to his first All-Star team.

This year, there are two candidates from the Portland Trailblazers: Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. As another attempt to have both players named to the team, Blazers staff sent out two packages this week to journalists and other NBA executives. The Blazers sent a Flip Video Camera fully stocked with all the highlights and stats of LaMarcus Alderidge in hopes of having him selected to his first All-Star team. The other gift? The NaviRoy. A fully functional Navigation System for cars and other motor vehicles of the sort. But of course they have to include something Roy related right? What do they do? Put Brandon Roy's face smack in the middle of the map. Instead of the small arrow posing as your car, moving along the map with some classic voice saying "Turn Right Here," you instead get Brandon Roy, voice and all. The NaviRoy also included a booklet reading "The Road Back to All-Star".

With both L.A. and BRoy having phenomenal (Weezy F. Baby and the F is for Phenomenal!) seasons, these polite and creative gifts should hopefully have the edge to have our boys selected this season.

You can read more about the Blazers All-Star gifts here.

-Dane