For Chad Forcier: 25 years in the NBA, and now two rings
Most coaches never get to experience the thrill of an NBA championship.
Chad Forcier has done it twice — once with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, this year with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I was so fortunate to have gone through it once with the Spurs,” says Forcier, a long-ago assistant coach at both Oregon State and the University of Portland. “To have a second shot at it with the Bucks … I’m not sure that ‘living a dream’ adequately describes it. I’m keenly aware of how many players and coaches never get to taste that. I feel very blessed.”
Forcier was on the bench alongside head coach Mike Budenholzer as Milwaukee took the Phoenix Suns in six games to secure the franchise’s first NBA title in a half-century. The city was agog over the prospects. An estimated 65,000 people jammed into the Deer District surrounding Fiserv Forum to watch Tuesday night’s Game 6 on a big screen outside the arena and then celebrate afterward.
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.
Tinkle: ‘It’s the most rewarding season I’ve had, for sure’
I believe it was Cinderella who once famously observed, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.”
That and, I would add, hard work. And perseverance. And dedication in working toward a common goal.
Oregon State wound up wearing the glass slipper for all of those reasons Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
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 Pac-12 football, Pat Casey and Bud Ossey, MLB to PDX, Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat and Chad Doing and the Denver Broncos …
The Pac-12 football schedule was (finally) announced Saturday, with Oregon fans happy with the Ducks’ lone crossover game, Oregon State fans not so much.
The Ducks, ranked 14th in the latest AP poll, play host to Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins on Nov. 20. The Bruins were 4-8 a year ago. The Beavers’ only game against a South Division opponent, meanwhile, is at defending South champion Utah on Dec. 5.