THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, November 15, 2015

If you’re a Sonics fan, no doubt you’ve been missing your team the past few years.

But at least with them gone to Oklahoma City, there’s at least some closure.

Also, there’s a faint chance they’ll return some day.

I’ve been missing my team for decades, but it’s still there.

PORTLAND AND Seattle are 173 miles apart, but in relationship to North Idaho, the two cities are far, far apart.

Seattle is some 311 miles from Coeur d’Alene, and folks here don’t think twice about jumping in the car and zipping over there in a day — and, sometimes, zipping back that same day.

Portland is only 384 miles from Coeur d’Alene, but you don’t hear people talk much about making a quick run to the Rose City.

Maybe motorists get distracted after stopping for gizzards in Ritzville, and miss the turnoff to head south on U.S. 395. Or perhaps they get frustrated driving around in circles trying to navigate the Tri-Cities via the freeway, and accidentally get turned around and end up heading back home.

IN THE NBA, Portland is hardly a destination for free agents — Danny Ainge in 1990 might have been the best — so when the Trail Blazers luck onto a star or two through the draft, you kinda like to see how that turns out.

And so it looked in 2012, when Portland drafted point guard Damian Lillard out of Weber State to team up with center LaMarcus Aldridge. A nice inside/outside duo to lead the Blazers into the playoffs for years and years — and maybe, with a few additional parts , a trip to the conference finals or NBA Finals.

Well, we know how that turned out.

Aldridge, drafted No. 2 overall in 2006 by Portland, made five trips to the playoffs in nine seasons as a Blazers. He won one series — that on a game-winner by Lillard over the Houston Rockets in 2014 — but that was it.

With the chance to re-up with Portland this year, he sounded like he might want to stay in the Northwest — up until the time he decided to sign with San Antonio.

Last week, in his return to Portland, he put up 23 points and six rebounds as the Spurs won 113-101 — politely letting the Blazers, and their fans, know what they were missing.

I HATE to think the only really good memories I’ll have of my Trail Blazers were in the “Blazermania” run to the NBA title in 1977, led by Bill Walton, and Maurice Lucas, and Lionel Hollins, and Bobby Gross, and Johnny Davis, and Dave Twardzik, and Larry Steele, Herm “The Trickster” Gilliam, and Jack Ramsay. Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals, when the Blazers blew out Dr. J and the 76ers, were inspirational, and games I never tire of watching.

They teased us again in the early 1990s, with two trips to the NBA Finals in a three-year span. Those teams, led by Clyde Drexler, Jerome Kersey, Terry Porter, Buck Williams and Kevin Duckworth, gave us hope. But the Pistons bullied them in the ’90 finals and, two years later, well, it was against the law to beat the Bulls and Michael Jordan during that era — something Sonics fans know all too well.

And who could forget some of the other Blazer notables over the years — Billy Ray Bates, Audie Norris, Abdul Jeelani ... OK, only Blazer diehards would remember those guys. I was heartbroken when Jeelani, who only played one season with Portland, was picked by the Dallas Mavericks in the 1980 expansion draft.

“They took Jeelani,” I cried.

Then there were the draft disasters — Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan in 1984, Greg Oden instead of Kevin Durrant in 2007 ...

Then there was the “Jail Blazers” era, highlighted — lowlighted? — by the Cheech and Chong adventures of Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire, rolling home down I-5 after a game in Seattle.

So unfortunately, you couldn’t blame Aldridge for wanting to return to his home state, and play for an actual NBA title contender. He gave it his all in the Rose City, but the Blazers did little over the years to surround him with enough decent players to contend.

And though Lillard claims he wants to remain a Blazer for life, you can’t blame him for signing with a better team when his contract is up in 2021.

Unless, of course, they have to unload him before then.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.