Pros vs. Joes No. 11: At 71, Twardzik is still calling games, and having fun doing it at his alma mater
Does Dave Twardzik ever wear the NBA championship ring he earned as a starting guard for the 1976-77 Trail Blazers?
Pros vs. Joes No. 2: Lester Conner is taking on a new experience in old stomping grounds
It had been more than three decades since Lester Conner called the Oakland area home.
Talking All-Star Game to Portland (nope), Geoff Petrie and Jerry West, Gary Payton and Lester Conner, The Kamikaze Kids … and more
Items on my mind during the chilly final days of February …
• Thought for the day provided by Frank “The Flake” Peters, at 78 still a juvenile at heart:
Steve Kerr’s Life Story was Worth Writing, and it’s Worth Reading
Scott Howard-Cooper had it all set up.
The veteran Sacramento journalist was prepared to write a book about the Golden State Warriors’ fourth NBA championship in five years in 2019.
“We were screwed,” Howard-Cooper says. “Nobody wanted to read a Warriors book coming off a loss.”
Howard-Cooper’s literary agent, Tim Hays, had another idea.
“He encouraged me to write a book on (Warriors coach) Steve Kerr,” Howard-Cooper says. “He stayed on me. He said, ‘Write out a proposal. Take a little time and put something on paper.’
On Aldridge’s retirement, the Trail Blazers’ lot in life, Tinkle’s contract, OSU women’s hoops, Transfer portal, Duck and Beaver baseball and other things on my mind …
Some (relatively) quick hitters about subjects on my mind in the sporting world …
• Item: LaMarcus Aldridge retires after 15 NBA seasons after experiencing a heart irregularity.
• Comment: Aldridge had played five games with Brooklyn after a buyout by San Antonio and signing as a free agent with the Nets. He had played well, starting and scoring 22 points in 23 minutes in a blowout win over New Orleans.
But after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during the Nets’ game against the Lakers last Saturday and some complications the following day, Aldridge chose to call it a career.
Thoughts on Tyler Shough, Ryan Crouser, Paul Castro, the Hops and Volcanoes, NBA-All-Star Weekend and the real G.O.A.T
A wintry weekend? Snow way!
Thoughts on some sporting subjects:
• Item: Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough enters the NCAA transfer portal.
A fond farewell to Herb Brown, the octogenarian Oregonian who has coached the world
Put Herb Brown in among the famous Oregonians who flies under the radar in the world of sports.
The older brother (by 4 1/2 years) of Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Brown is an accomplished casaba coach in his own right.
Brown, who turns 85 in March, is most well-known for his time spent as head coach of the Detroit Pistons from 1975-77.
But Brown’s resume is replete with stops throughout the world. The native New Yorker has had assistant coaching jobs with eight franchises, including the Trail Blazers. He was a member of Maurice Cheeks’ Portland staff from 2001-03.
On the Trail Blazers’ lousy start, Hassan Whiteside and my former boss, Alabama’s long snapper, a Texas grad assistant and all those $$ tossed around in college football
Things on my mind as we kick off a new (and hopefully far better) year …
• A statistical analysis of the Trail Blazers’ disappointing seven-game start to the 2020-21 campaign portends that the local NBA quintet is fortunate to be 3-4.
The off-season emphasis by general manager Neil Olshey was help at the defensive end, something that was a near-constant during Terry Stotts’ first eight years as coach.
Wishing the best For two of the best In the SID business
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all of us, and in many ways.
At Oregon State, 23 positions in the athletic department were eliminated recently, including two of the five full-time members of the sports information staff.
These folks let go to help cut the department’s financial losses aren’t greenhorns. Steve Fenk had been a member of the SID staff since 1990, the head of the department since 2004. Jason Amberg, who had been on board as an assistant for 16 years, was Fenk’s first hire.
Fifty years ago, the Blazers got it all started with a victory over the Cavs …
Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the first regular-season game ever played by the Trail Blazers.
It was also the first professional game for rookie guard Geoff Petrie, one of the best players in franchise history and later the club’s general manager. And it was the first NBA game called by Bill Schonely, who was to become a legend and perhaps the most popular figure ever with the Blazers.
The date was Oct. 16, 1970. Portland beat fellow expansion club Cleveland 115-112 before a crowd of 4,723 at Memorial Coliseum.