Portland will always hold a special place in Iron Man’s heart. It is, after all, the city where Wesley Matthews invented his alter ego with the help of a Trail Blazers teammate.
The nickname started because Matthews drove an Audi R8, the same car Tony Stark drove in the “Iron Man” movies. Teammate Jeff Pendergraph (now Ayres) started kiddingly calling Matthews “Tony,” but that soon morphed into “Iron Man,” which stuck.
“I just kind of developed that moniker, that kind of swagger, slash, that alter ego,” Matthews said. “It’s here.”
Matthews, who played five seasons in Portland before signing with the Dallas Mavericks this summer, returns to the Moda Center with mixed emotions Tuesday night.