Big Red is gone: ‘No one did it like he did it’
Monday was Memorial Day, but a very different one for many who played in the NBA. Heck, for people across the country, and around the world.
Pros vs. Joes No. 5: At the rate he’s going, Darnell Valentine might just live forever
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.
Pros vs. Joes No. 3: Neil Everett on his rookie season with Trail Blazers: ‘I’ve loved it’
Neil Everett was on the way out of his home in Mar Vista, Calif., for a late afternoon walk with the family dog.
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:
Talking sports: Trail Blazers trading frenzy, MLB strike and Adley Rutschman, Pioneers’ Jay Locey to the USFL
Weighing in some sporting issues of the day …
• There must be a method to Joe Cronin’s madness.
Or as Ricky Ricardo might say, “Somebody’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
Book Signing at Huber’s Cafe When the Portland Trail Blazers Take on the Los Angeles Clippers
Join me Monday December 6, 2021 in Portland at Huber's Cafe, Portland's oldest restaurant and home of the best Spanish Coffee served anywhere. I will be signing my latest book "Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds" from 5-7 PM, before the Trail Blazers v. Los Angeles Clippers game at the Moda Center.
With Neil Everett and Dewayne Hankins, talking Blazer broadcasting for 2021-22
Summing up the Blazer broadcasting scene for the upcoming season — and there are plenty of changes …
• Neil Everett sounded like a kid in a candy store when I caught up with him via phone while he was at his vacation cottage in Seaside.
“I just found a vintage Trail Blazers jacket at an antique store in town,” Everett told me. “I don’t know what year it’s from, but it has to be 30 to 40 years old and it looks like it’s never been worn. I’m so fired up.”
Everett paid $300 for the jacket.
On Kevin Calabro and Jordan Kent, the sports broadcasting scene in Portland, Ime Udoka, James Allen, the Cambia Portland Classic and much more …
Knocking it around on a potpourri of sports topics …
• Kevin Calabro’s return to the broadcasting booth with the Trail Blazers is not a done deal.
The Blazers, who let Jordan Kent go last week as their TV play-by-play announcer, have extended an offer in principle to Calabro, who served as their TV play-by-play man from 2016-20 but gave up his job during the COVID-19-interrupted 2020 campaign.
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.
With David Adelman, Talking “the Joker and Jamal” and the Nuggets’ amazing ride to the Western Conference finals
David Adelman was up past midnight Thursday in his hotel room on the Disney campus in Orlando. For the better part of an hour, the Denver Nuggets assistant coach was Facetiming with wife Jenny and their two children, son L.J., 6, and daughter Lennan, 5, who were all back home in Denver. And there was some conversation with Nuggets head coach Michael Malone.
My take on the NBA boycott, and why players were wise to not go dark the rest of the season
I’m glad NBA players decided Thursday not to boycott for the rest of the season.
Not because something like $1 billion in national television rights is riding on the playoffs, though that’s certainly a consideration, too.