Pros vs. Joes No. 5: At the rate he’s going, Darnell Valentine might just live forever

Darnell Valentine with daughter Tierra (left) and wife Cindy (courtesy Darnell Valentine)

For 15 years, since he was laid off from what he called his “dream job” — as director of player programs for the Trail Blazers — Darnell Valentine has been employed at Precision Castparts, an industrial goods and metal fabrication company headquartered in Portland.

At first, Valentine’s title was “corporate director of employee advancement.” Today, he is the “chief diversity officer” for a company with more than 30,000 employees.

“We’re driving a lot of incredible initiatives that we’re implementing to address some of the imbalances within the company,” says Valentine, 63, one of the celebrities who will participate in the “Pros vs. Joes” NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket Challenge on kerryeggers.com.

“I’m excited how the leadership has embraced it and the company is moving forward,” Valentine says. “We are broadening the candidate pool and looking for people who can come in and make contributions to our company. Another part of it is giving opportunities to people of color in our organization to create a pathway to the next level of leadership in our business. We want to establish an educational base for us to create a work space that is comfortable for everybody.

“This is the best life experience I think I’ve ever had in terms of career. I value this more than I do basketball.”

That’s saying something. For so many years, basketball was a huge part of his life.

Valentine played the first 4 1/2 of his nine NBA seasons in Portland from 1981-90, starting 225 of the 300 games he played under coach Jack Ramsay. He then played three years professionally in Italy before ending his playing career in 1994. He stepped almost immediately into a job as a regional representative to the NBA Players Association that lasted 11 years (1994-2004). Valentine spent the next 2 1/2 years as the Blazers’ director of player programs before being laid off in 2007 in what was labeled a cost-cutting move by owner Paul Allen.

That was a difficult time for Valentine. But he rebounded quickly, showing resilience, relying on a trait that served him well through a childhood faced with adversity.

“Every day I wake up and I’m grateful for who I am,” Darnell says. “Especially when you take into account where I come from.”

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Valentine spent his early years living in the Cabrini-Green public housing project in north Chicago. His father was a disabled Korean War veteran. His mother cleaned homes and office buildings.

“Cabrini-Green was built (during) World War II, mostly for white folks and Italian-Americans,” says Darnell, the youngest of four children in his family. “As the economy changed, blacks started moving in. It became a place of survival.”

At age 10, he moved to live with an aunt in Wichita, Kan.

“I would always visit during the summertimes,” he says. “Finally one year, I asked if I could stay.”

The aunt, though, had her own children to raise.

“I was living with somebody else’s family,” Valentine says. “They didn’t treat me as an equal. Most of their attention went with their kids. I wasn’t treated as part of the family, but it was a safe environment and a home.”

Sports proved a way out for Valentine.

“What would I have done without basketball?” he says. “I often wonder.”

Soon after moving to Wichita, he became acquainted with a business tycoon named Jamie Coulter, one of the founders of Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

“One day, a bunch of us kids were out playing basketball at the park, and he took us to his house,” Valentine recalls. “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the first time I ever saw a house with a private pool. He even had a soda dispenser in his party room. I remember drinking some Orange Crush.

“That day allowed me the opportunity to see that there was a world outside of my three-mile radius.”

Darnell developed into a star at Wichita Heights High and stayed in-state to play basketball at Kansas, where he was a four-year starter under coach Ted Owens on teams that went a collective 81-38. The Blazers took him with the 16th pick in the 1981 NBA draft. He came off the bench as a rookie but started through most of his other seasons in Portland, averaging 9.8 points and 5.2 assists as a chiseled, no-nonsense 6-1 point guard.

Darnell Valentine and Kansas coach Ted Owens (Courtesy of Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries)

“Portland was the perfect setting for my introduction into The NBA,” Valentine says. “I wasn’t a big-city kid. I was country, coming from Wichita, Kan. Portland is simple. The organization had good leaders who cared about the players. The entire community embraced the players, which is still true today. I felt like I belonged. It gave me a chance to not be swept up into the politics and lifestyle of a big city.”

Portland sent him to the Clippers in 1986 in a trade that brought back Boston’s first-round draft pick that season. I ask Valentine if he knows who the Blazers got with the pick.

“Arvydas Sabonis,” he says quickly, laughing. “That’s a trivia question I often lay on people. The Blazers got some return value for me.”

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t ask him back after his final NBA campaign at age 31 in 1990-91, despite the fact that he averaged 11.9 points and 6.9 assists while shooting .464 from the field, starting 60 of his 65 games that season. So he headed to Italy to finish his pro career with three seasons there.

“I had a good time,” Valentine says. “It was a chance to play some more ball at a high level and have exposure to another culture. I still have friends over there. Two years ago I went back and spent time in Florence and traveled the countryside. I had a ball seeing some of my old teammates.”

Portland was good to Valentine in another respect. It is where he met his wife of 40 years, Cindy, with whom he lives in Tigard. Their daughter Tierra lives in Tualatin.

Valentine still serves as an ambassador at some Blazer games at Moda Center, the last time in late February when the local quintet played Golden State.

“We visited six suites that night,” he says. “We’re old, forgotten, dusty has-beens, but people are still receptive and feel honored for us to come by to say hello. We get nothing but total respect. It’s really nice. I have to think the only other professional sports organization that has that kind of relationship with the community is the Packers in Green Bay.”

Valentine, legendary for keeping his body in top shape, remains at his playing weight of 190 pounds. He works out daily and looks much younger than the average sexagenarian.

“I’ve been blessed,” he says. “I love how I feel. I love my energy level. I’m going to live a long time. I’m doing everything I can to keep the percentages in my favor. Hopefully I can outlive Betty White.”

Valentine follows his beloved Jayhawks, who are one of the teams considered to have a shot at the NCAA championship this season. He isn’t promising he will pin all his hopes on his alma mater, though.

“It’s wide open this year,” he says. “You throw a dart and you’re going to have just as good a chance as anybody else.”

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