Honestly, it was a rare opportunity. A last look at a place where I enjoyed many an enjoyable game throughout my life, from my time as a student at the University of Oregon (wow — the Ducks hold the ball on Lew Alcindor and almost beat the Bruins)… to Dick Harter’s Ronnie Lee teams… to covering the old Class AA state basketball tournament and players like Melvin “The Elevator” Lentz. So many fun times.

Rob Closs was kind enough to share one of his season tickets with me and also do all the driving. I couldn’t lose. Along the way we stopped for a tour of almost-finished PK Park (I mean, double wow — the city of Portland can’t get that done but the Ducks do, and in the Autzen parking lot. It’s going to be an incredible ballpark, folks.) And we cruised past the under-construction new arena, Pre’s Rock and a few other Eugene sights before watching the Ducks pull out an overtime win over UCLA.

Thanks to Rob, the night couldn’t have gone any better. A few observations from a memorable evening:

– I settled into my Mac Court seat and watched the arena filling up as players got ready. I couldn’t help but think, “Why?” Why do they have to leave this place? It’s been around long enough now it’s past the point of complaining about and become a piece of memorabilia. You know what I mean. An old baseball uniform can be pretty disgusting unless it happened to once be worn by Babe Ruth. This joint they call The Pit — man, it’s seen some great players, great games and memorable moments.

And beyond that, it’s just flat-out a great place to watch a game. All those balconies hanging over the court give you a feeling like an old opera house. Fans are right on top of the action. I cannot believe someone isn’t still building arenas like this. It’s unique. The only thing worse than leaving it is tearing it down. What a loss it will be — one of the great college sports venues ANYWHERE.

If you’ve never been there, or if it’s been a while, you really owe it to yourself to get down there before the season ends. Most of the games are NOT sold out, so really — don’t miss this chance to sample the atmosphere one final time.

– That said, I understand why this is happening. Times change and so does everything else if it wants to survive and prosper. And this campus is alive with new construction. For someone who hasn’t been there in a while, it was a real eye-opener. Man, the place where I spent two years goofing off in classes has really changed.

– I love the fact the Ducks are honoring players and coaches from opposing teams as well as the ones from their own school. Bill Walton was there Thursday night and was his usual hilarious self in a reception prior to the game. He’s a real beauty, a natural comedian with great timing and some wisdom, too. When I told him I was now doing radio in the mornings and had been around long enough my young cohorts were now calling me “The Godfather,” he looked at me with horror and invoked the names of two newspapermen who covered his career with the Trail Blazers.

“You’re not the Godfather. That would be Kenny Wheeler… or Bob Robinson!” he thundered. I love the guy. May God bless you with perfect health the rest of your life, Bill.

– The Ducks actually looked pretty good in this game. But on the other hand, the Bruins were pretty bad. I haven’t been around as long as Mac Court, but I can tell you that’s perhaps the worst UCLA team I’ve ever seen and certainly the one with the least amount of talent on it. And fewest athletes. What’s going on down there?

On the other hand, what’s going on in the entire conference? Ugh. Are we looking for that conference to get just one NCAA bid? And not even deserving that one?

– I met a ton of very nice people, saw some people I hadn’t chatted with in years and it all made for a wonderful evening. Thanks again, Rob! And I have to say it one last time, I’m really going to miss that old barn.

–

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Wow. This one really caught me by surprise:

Walton, in a statement: “As I return after a grueling multi-year, life-threatening, life-changing ordeal with back problems, it is time to dedicate the rest of my life to service. … Thanks everybody — for everything.”

Good luck, Bill. You’ll be a success in whatever you choose to do.

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In an answer to a commenter recently who was proclaiming Roy “the best player in the history of the franchise” or some such nonsense, I think I responded along the lines of “No. Not even close.” Dave at Blazersedge.com addressed the same issue here, toward the end of his post and for now, has pretty much the same answer.

There were people who disagreed with that, but I’ll stick by it. Yes, Roy’s put in three terrific seasons here. But the operative word is three. It’s going to take more than that to establish himself as better than Clyde Drexler. And really, I’d still take Bill Walton’s magnificent season and a half over Roy’s three when it comes to greatness.

When healthy, and Portland had but that season and a half of full-scale Walton, I’m not sure there was a better all-around center in the history of basketball than Walton. Others were better shot-blockers or scorers or defenders. But none was a better passer and I’m not sure any of them did EVERYTHING as well as he did. He was a wonder.

In a franchise sense, you have to be great over a reasonable length of time — and I think we’ll be able to see it pretty clearly by the time Roy’s contract extension is fulfilled. Perhaps by then, we’ll know if he’s the greatest. (UPDATE: Ben at Blazersedge.com has done a terrific job of listing five things Brandon needs to do better as he matures as a player. It’s a must read.)

But right now, we can’t say it because it’s way too early.

I’m not one to measure players by their championship rings. That’s so totally unfair. Some great players played on lousy teams. You need help to win titles. Some great players played on teams that were loaded. My goodness, the old Celtic teams had so many stars it was hard to tell just how good any of them were without the other ones.

I saw Walton and I saw Drexler. With Clyde I saw just about every game he played with the Blazers after his rookie season. For those who didn’t see him, all I can tell you is that he may have been the best rebounding guard I’ve ever seen. He got tough rebounds, with games on the line.

He made clutch shots and clutch free throws. He wasn’t a consistently great defensive player but if you needed the ball late in a game, I saw him get steals 20 feet off his own man to help win games. He could block shots and he could get shots — for himself and his teammates. He played in Jordan’s shadow throughout his career and that was too bad. But he was an MVP-caliber player for years who hardly ever missed a game. He would have four- or five-minute bursts where he absolutely dominated the court — scoring points, setting people up, blocking shots or stealing the ball — like no Blazer I’ve ever seen.

I will never forget Game 2 of the NBA Finals when the Blazers had the ball in the waning moments with a chance to beat the Pistons in Auburn Hills when Rick Adelman called a timeout. “Square him up and bust his ass to the basket,” I could hear Adelman screaming at Clyde during the timeout through the din of the Palace. That’s what Clyde did and he drew a foul. With the game on the line — Bang. Bang. Two free throws and that series was square at a game apiece.

Man, that was Clyde.

And so quick. I mean really quick. Maybe the quickest 6-7 man I’ve ever seen. So kids, I’m warning you — don’t even think about it.

Like Walton, Clyde’s in the Basketball Hall of Fame. ‘Nuff said.

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I’ll start by saying one thing right away — after all these years of covering athletics, I never question a player’s injuries. If he says he’s hurting, I always believe that he is. I’ve seen too many times when people thought a player was slow recovering, or even faking something — to find out later there was a serious injury that went undiscovered or misdiagnosed.

It’s been many, many years since the days of the open warfare between Bill Walton and the Trail Blazers’ medical staff. But I find it ironic that these days whenever there seems to be mystery about an injury nobody questions the doctors but they feel free to doubt the player.

There are some factors at work here with Oden’s knee injury that some people may not have considered. The foremost is that the Blazers’ medical staff is having a bit of an unlucky season.

Martell Webster was originally thought to be out for six to eight weeks. Then he was actually thought to be healed and was given the green light to return to action. He played five minutes and now is out for the remainder of the regular season.

Steve Blake had a shoulder injury, was given permission to return to action but suffered a setback and then had to miss more games.

There is no possible way of knowing whether these players were too eager to return, were being pressured to return quicker than they should have, or if there was some mistake in evaluating the extent of their healing. On the whole, everyone must understand that this isn’t always an exact science and all people heal differently. Treating athletes who perform at a high physical level isn’t easy.

But I would also understand that there may be an extra degree of caution with Oden after what’s gone on previously. I would figure that care will be taken so that when Oden returns to action, he does so without any fear of an immediate re-injury.

If you’re a fan and you’re frustrated, imagine how the doctors and the players feel. There are no easy answers. And patience is the only remedy.

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You may have noticed that ESPN has been fiddling with this Mount Rushmore thing, trying to spark controversy with a list of four faces etched in stone that represent sports for each state.

ESPN.com columnist Scoop Jackson has taken it a step farther by attaching four faces to each NBA team — and here’s what he put together for the Blazers:

Billy Ray Bates, Clyde Drexler, Jack Ramsay, Bill Walton
Rationale: “Who is Billy Ray Bates?” you are probably asking. Ask anyone in Portland. Ask Brent Musburger, who lost his voice while at CBS calling his games. A player who probably should be replaced by anyone from Lionel Hollins to Brandon Roy, Bates to this day — nearly 27 years after his last game with the team — is still the most exciting player in Blazers history. His face represents the “I in team” side of the game.

I have to say this emphatically: No. No. No.

I don’t think Billy Ray Bates was the most exciting player in Blazer history. For everything he did, Clyde did it five times. Bates, for those of you who don’t know about him, was maybe the saddest Blazer story of all time. He had a talent for the spectacular, but wasn’t a sound player. I think the myth became bigger than the man and he was destined for a bad ending almost from the beginning (although he is now reportedly out of prison and living in the New Jersey area).

Walton, Drexler — they have to be there. Brandon Roy is the new face. And I have to say, Maurice Lucas should be considered. And for you old folks, Geoff Petrie would be in the running.

And funny how this works, but there’s another name just as tied into the Blazers’ history as any of the others — through good times and bad, the public face of the franchise for decades. That would be legendary broadcaster Bill Schonely — soon to be honored with Portland’s very prestigious (take a look at who has won it) First Citizen award.

But the reasons we have a comments section is for you to tell me what YOU think, so have at it.

(A tip of the hat to reader Douglas, for finding this.)

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I believe this is one of the most promising games in the last couple of seasons for the Portland Trail Blazers. And no, not just because it was won with Brandon Roy on the sidelines. It was much more than that:

• Portland was tough. Tough. All night long. When they got an elbow in the chops, the Blazers gave one right back. They made several subtle physical statements, right from the first Boston possession of the game, that they would take no crap Tuesday night. That’s a huge step forward for the Trail Blazers — a quantum leap, really, because it was a step many thought they couldn’t make. They’ve been soft at times in the past — and may again be soft. But Tuesday they showed that they CAN play tough, too.
• I don’t even know where to start with Greg Oden. He met the physical challenge and became a huge factor in the game. Boston does not have anyone big enough to guard him. He keeps offensive rebounds alive and he seals the middle on defense. Every game he shows you something more on offense. He hit a face-up jumper and a FINGER ROLL(!!!!) Tuesday night. Sorry, but executed perfectly, there’s no prettier shot in basketball than the finger roll. You probably grew up watching George Gervin drop them in from the middle of the lane, like in the greatest Nike commercial EVER (“The one thing I could do was finger roll.”) Beautiful stuff. But I can still remember Wilt Chamberlain, when he wasn’t close enough to dunk, could finger roll with incredible accuracy. It’s a great shot because a tall guy with long arms can get the ball past a defender and make a shot almost unblockable by using it — and draw a lot of fouls in the process. If you’re still not on the Oden Express, that’s fine. Just be careful what you say about him because at some point, you’re likely to look pretty foolish (SIDEBAR TIME!!!! — Once there was a sportscaster at KGW (8), a legendary pioneer in Portland, named Doug LaMear. Doug was a good guy, but back in the day when most of Portland was frustrated by Bill Walton’s politics and his inability to play many games without getting hurt, LaMear suggested the Blazers ought to trade Walton for “(noted naturalist) Euell Gibbons and a six-pack of carrot juice.” It was funny stuff and ended up in Time Magazine, even. Except a year or two later when Walton was leading Portland to its only NBA title, nobody thought it was too funny then — by that time good ol’ Bill had become Portland’s favorite hippie center. Careful what you say now, folks — if he doesn’t get seriously hurt, this guy Oden is going to be a monster. END SIDEBAR)
• Steve Blake made huge shots and defended some very tough guys.
• Joel Przybilla and Oden played together for a few minutes and it was VERY effective. I liked the look of Oden with the ball on one side of the lane and Przybilla crashing the rim from the weakside. In the playoffs, I’d be tempted to use the two centers with Aldridge in a tight, three-man, two-position rotation.
• Playoffs? You better believe it.
• I think Nate McMillan, deep down, must have loved this game. Finally, his team captured some of the coach’s physical toughness. It will be interesting to see if it was a one-night wonder or a long-term addition.

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This is an uncomfortable conversation for me but enough people have asked me about it (this happens when you get old — people ask you a lot more historical questions and assume you were there calling “next” on the day Doc Naismith nailed the peach baskets to the wall).

The latest Blazer announcement that No. 30 is being retired for two players — Terry Porter and Bobby Gross — caught me a little off guard. I mean, everyone knew the Blazers were going to hang Porter’s number at some point. Gross, though, was a surprise because we’re talking about a player here who played in only 486 Trail Blazer games and averaged just 9.2 points in those games. Those stats don’t come close to matching up with another No. 30, Rasheed Wallace.

Don’t get me wrong, I would be the last person to suggest Wallace’s number should be retired. His biggest contribution to Blazer history was inscribed on a T-shirt I still wear that says, “Both teams played hard.”

I’m not here today to bury anyone. A lot of the people mentioned in this post are friends of mine. Bob Gross was a key player on a Portland team that won an NBA championship and stats certainly aren’t everything when it comes to evaluating a player’s contribution to a franchise.

But I’ve always wondered, what exactly is the criteria for retiring a number?

Portland has laundry in the rafters right now honoring its former owner, Larry Weinberg, its former broadcaster, Bill Schonely, its former general manager, Harry Glickman, a former coach, Jack Ramsay and former players Dave Twardzik, Lionel Hollins, Larry Steele, Maurice Lucas, Clyde Drexler, Bill Walton, Lloyd Neal and Geoff Petrie. Porter and Gross will soon join them.

That’s a lot of cloth hanging from the ceiling of a team that’s won just one championship, isn’t it?

One of the people who has a number retired told me several years ago that he thought the Blazers made a huge mistake in not putting one banner up for the championship team — with all the numbers or names of the players on that team — but not actually retiring all those numbers. You know, honor all those guys but don’t get carried away by putting their number away.

I agree with that. I think retiring numbers should be saved for Hall of Fame caliber players — or people who have been with the franchise for a long period of time, like Schonely. And I’d hope that when retiring a player’s number, that fans could look up there and see that number and know who the player is, without the name even being attached to it. Clyde? That’s No. 22, of course. It always will be. Walton? 32! Luke? 20! You know those, right? It would have been silly for anyone else to attempt to wear those numbers after those guys wore them.

Lloyd Neal? He was No. 36. Larry Steele was 15. Twardzik had lucky 13. I love those guys. Great people. Now I hate to play this game, but fans do it all the time – you could start comparing statistical contributions and ask where is Jim Paxson’s No. 4? Mychal Thompson’s 43? What about Buck Williams’ 52? Jerome Kersey’s No. 25?

Again, the point isn’t to diminish anyone’s role in the history of the Trail Blazers. Congratulations to all of them. But when you need one program to identify the players on the court and another one to sort out the jerseys in the rafters, that may be a little much.

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This is written by Will Carroll, whose work in basketball and baseball is always worth a read:

Many are also conjuring up images of Sam Bowie, but let’s be clear: Oden doesn’t have a chronic foot problem, the type that ended or altered the course of the careers of Walton and Bowie. This is closer to a simple ankle sprain, the single most common injury in the NBA, and one that happens most often when a player lands on another player’s foot, though many would guess it comes more from this type of thing. No one seems too panicked about the fortunes of Michael Redd, Peja Stojakovic or Carmelo Anthony, All-Star-level players currently out with ankle sprains of varying severity.

It’s difficult enough to project what a player will do over the course of a season, let alone a career. The pressure of being a number-one pick is one thing, but Oden is also considered the heir to the Big Man Throne held by Shaquille O’Neal for the past decade, reaching back to Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and George Mikan. Like Walton, he’s considered the savior of a franchise that’s been more known for arrests than wins. It may be that Oden never meets any of the lofty expectations put on him, but by calling him a bust after less than a full game and a fluky injury that could have happened to anyone who happened to land on another player’s foot, we’re doing ourselves more of a disservice than we are to Oden. He may end up being injury-prone, but as with everything else surrounding his NBA career, it’s just too early to know whether he’s the next Shaq or Wilt or the next Walton or Bowie.

In the end, this is one more pretty smart person telling us to just relax, have patience and not panic. You should check out the entire piece.

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Big players these days seem to suffer with more injuries. It’s just part of the package, whether it be Shaq or Yao or Hakeem or Patrick Ewing or even Tim Duncan. People of that size are physically unique to begin with and are just more vulnerable, I believe. The stress on their body due to their size is incredible.

Oden’s injury this time is not serious. If I had to bet on it, I’d say he’ll be back in closer to two weeks than four weeks. And how about a little perspective here. . .

Here are the number of games Bill Walton played in (out of 82) during his first six seasons in the NBA: 35, 51, 65, 58, 14 and 33.

And are you going to say it was a bad idea for the Trail Blazers to draft Walton? I didn’t think so. Just relax and be patient. A couple of weeks out of a player’s career are nothing. And really — even if his career path is going to mirror the injury problems of Walton or Sam Bowie,  you may as well relax, anyway. He’s here. He’s a Blazer. There’s no turning back now. He seems to be a wonderful young man who wants to play a lot more, even, than you want him to play.

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