My thoughts on the NBA’s Top 75, the dozen greatest players ever, and another 10 for good measure
The All-Star Weekend’s cavalcade of events in Cleveland will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the NBA.
Should Buck Williams be a Hall of Famer? Says Fordham Prep’s sports analytics club: ‘Yes’
Those in Portland in the 1990s recall Charles Linwood “Buck” Williams as the lunch-bucket power forward whose acquisition proved the missing link in the Trail Blazers’ rise to NBA Finals in ’90 and ’92.
Herb Brown, Mark Warkentien Endorse Blazers’ selection of Billups as head coach
Herb Brown was an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons for only one season — but what a season it was.
The older brother of then-Detroit head coach Larry Brown was on hand for the Pistons’ ride to the NBA championship in 2003-04. One of his favorite players to work with on that team was the new head coach of the Trail Blazers, Chauncey Billups.
“I love him,” says Herb, now retired and living in Traveler’s Rest, S.C. “He was terrific when I was with the Pistons. He’s a major reason why we were successful. He was a great leader. He took coaching. He understood coaching. He was truly professional.”
Buck doesn’t stop at Olshey —At least, he says it doesn’t
Neil Olshey conducts a press conference not so much to inform the media as to educate them.
When the Trail Blazers’ president of basketball operations (general manager) believes the narrative about his team and the job he is doing is off-kilter, he’ll gather the scribes and set them straight.
Olshey has long been president of the Neil Olshey Fan Club, and when membership gets low, he does what he can to drum up the numbers.
That’s what he did during a Monday Zoom conference with local reporters, whose collective wisdom, he is quite sure, fits neatly on the head of a pin. Not only does Olshey not suffer fools gladly, he enjoys delivering a proverbial kick in the tush when he deems it necessary.
Barlow’s Tom Johnson: He inspires, he mentors, he teaches life lessons, and he wins …
I walked into Barlow High on a recent Friday night to the sweet sound of basketballs bouncing in the gym, and the reassuring sight of fans filing in the doors and milling around in the lobby, awaiting a game.
There were no concessions being sold, no cheerleaders dancing, no pep band playing, and everyone was masked up.
Even so, it was a return — somewhat — to the normalcy that COVID-19 had stolen from us more than a year ago.
Gresham beat Barlow 61-47 before a crowd I’d estimate at about 300 spectators, seated in every other row in a facility with a capacity probably about 1,000.
Pondering what’s happening with Damian Lillard, Ethan Thompson, Chris Duarte and Terry Porter …
Ruminations on roundball heading into the weekend …
• There is plenty of consternation in Rip City over the NBA’s “snub” of Damian Lillard as a starter in the upcoming All-Star Game. You fans who are up in arms: Sit down right now. You still have a chance to win the “Biofreeze Hoop With Dame” contest, where you can shoot it out with Lillard and win up to $100,000. (Personally, I’d rather have it out with Brooke Olzendam in ping pong.).
I’m no fan of no fans at Moda, and neither is Damian Lillard
Having left the newspaper business in April after 45 years, I’d not been to a Trail Blazer game at Moda Center until Sunday’s date with the New York Knicks.
Portland PR honchos Jim Taylor and Jake Gifford were good enough to credential me and allow me to experience first-hand what it’s like to be in an NBA arena without fans due to COVID-19.
Blazers-Lakers should be an intriguing matchup. And my pick for the series winner is …
A few observations as the eighth-seeded Trail Blazers take on the challenge of facing the top-seeded L.A. Lakers in a seven-game first-round playoff series to which everyone across NBA circles will be paying attention …
• In a word, watching the Blazers’ nine-game run-up to the NBA playoffs has been fun.
Not because they made it — after 45 years in the sportswriting business, I’ll probably never think like a fan — but because Portland’s seeding games have been so watchable.
I was a guest on Ferrall: Coast To Coast on The SportsGrid Network hosted by Scott Ferrall
Longtime national sports radio host Scott Ferrall wanted to catch up with what is happening in the sports landscape in Portland. We chatted about the Trail Blazers, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony, and my upcoming book about Jerome Kersey.
With Dame, CJ and good health, Blazers’ outlook bright in ’20-21
Last week, toward the end of a Chicago-based podcast in which I was the guest, I was asked if the Trail Blazers might break up their backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
My answer was that I didn’t see Lillard — an institution in the Northwest, one of the franchise’s greatest-ever player — going anywhere, but that the Blazers might choose to trade McCollum “at some point” to bolster their talent at the forward spot.
In retrospect, I wish I’d thought the question through a little more.