OK, I’m certainly not in favor of firing Kevin Pritchard. Seems to me he’s done a pretty good job as general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers. But at the same time, I have to tell you I’m not as indignant about it as so many others.

Why? I’m not entirely sure. But having been around the Trail Blazers and the NBA for a long time, let me share a few reasons.

For one, I don’t know when I’ve seen an NBA general manager who has been the beneficiary so much hero worship. I mean, that whole “In KP we trust” and “KP doesn’t drive to work, he walks across the Willamette” stuff astounded me. I mean, universally through the NBA I have heard so many other front-office types make fun of all the positive strokes the guy gets. People think it’s kind of funny.

And I have been consistent in saying something you don’t really hear anywhere else: We really don’t know how good Pritchard is in that draft room. All we know is the team meets in that room and emerges united in whatever choice it makes. We really don’t know whose idea anything was.

Do we know for a fact that Greg Oden was Pritchard’s choice? Do we know if Paul Allen liked the pick? Do we know whose idea it was to select Nic Batum or Martell Webster? Really? How do we know this — because Pritchard leaked it to a media friend? The hardest part of evaluating the whole draft process with the Blazer organization is never knowing — for SURE — who made what picks. Come on, Paul Allen is so involved on draft day I’m not so sure he doesn’t make some of those picks himself.

Consequently, it’s very difficult to evaluate the general manager unless you’re right there in the middle of the chaos on draft day or whenever a major deal is going down. Unless you are, you’re a slave to someone else’s version of the truth about what went down. And when that person is involved, can you trust his version?

I’ll say one other thing: I’ve been around this organization for a long time. I covered the Blazers when they said goodbye to Jack Ramsay and Stu Inman — the men who made the Trail Blazers’ only championship possible. I saw Rick Adelman fired and Geoff Petrie resign in frustration.

And you think, with that in mind, I’m going to get all hot and bothered about Kevin Pritchard being dumped?

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It came to me last evening, as I was interviewing Jack Ramsay during the BFT on 95.5 The Game.

Yes, they’re letting Bill Schonely broadcast some of the game. Ramsay thought that was a cool idea. Of course, we all do. But what about bringing Jack Ramsay back, digging an old pair of paisley pants out of the closet for him and letting him be with the team for a few days and then coach part of the game? I’m sure Nate McMillan wouldn’t mind — I mean, come on, it’s only an exhibition game.

I can’t imagine there would be any bigger thrill for Trail Blazer fans — or basketball fans in general — than to see Jack Ramsay for just a few minutes, down on one knee in front of a Trail Blazer bench. And you know, I think if it’s handled right, Jack would do it.

“I don’t know,” he said Monday when I asked him about it. “I think my coaching career is over.” But then he paused a little and I think considered it some. Actually, I think it would be great for Jack, too, to feel the love just one more time. There’s a whole generation of Trail Blazer fans out there who have never seen him on the sidelines.

And any exposure this team can have to the great Hall of Fame coach would show the players the championship legacy the Trail Blazers own. Honestly, a few days – even one night – with Jack Ramsay would help any team in some way.

I don’t know, maybe I’ve kind of gone wacky with this game, because going back into that building is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to recapture memories that were just about gone. I just think if you’re going to go back in there and play one more time, you may as well do all you can to maximize the moment.

AND BY THE WAY: Not that it would appeal to anyone at One Center Court, but can you imagine the publicity it would generate on ESPN (Jack’s network) to have him doing this? And I’d make it clear, too, that it isn’t a publicity stunt. Make sure Jack gets a few days prior to the game with the team to leave what will be a lasting impact on the players. The Ramsay charisma and winner’s mentality is still very strong.

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“Doctor Jack” is how he’s known now, as he’s carved out a nice career as an NBA radio analyst. In the days when I covered him as the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, the “Doctor” thing was not really a part of the whole thing.

He was just “Jack.” And I have to tell you, I can’t possibly tell all the stories and relate to you exactly how I feel about him in just one post. He was the first NBA coach I ever covered, when my career as an NBA beat reporter began, back in 1984. I approached him at first with some degree of caution, because his reputation at the time was that he didn’t have a lot of patience for stupid questions or the people who asked them.

I think, in short order, I disproved that. I tried very hard not to bother him with dumb questions but when I did, I never saw any sign of impatience. I mean, the man — this great man — was so nice to me I was totally disarmed. Actually, I don’t know that I’ve ever, in my entire career covered a more interesting, patient, resilient, cooperative, brilliant man.

And the best part is that he had a terrific sense of humor and an awareness of the rest of the world that few other big-time coaches that I’ve ever met have had. Jack would be a little difficult after tough losses, he was known for that. I respected that. He was a hell of a competitor. But the next day he would bounce back with a smile on his face, always ready to tackle whatever was heading his way.

I can remember those early wakeup calls on the road, when the team had lost a difficult game the night before (and in this part of his Blazer coaching career, the losses started to come more frequently). He’d be the same guy as if his team had won by 20.

And the best part, I think, was that he wasn’t one of those “the league is my life” kinds of guys. This wasn’t Mike Schuler, who was so involved in coaching that he once confessed to me that he had no idea what “that Watergate thing” is. (“Honestly, Dwight, I know it had something to do with Nixon, but I don’t really know what happened. I’m not proud of that. I was too busy coaching.”)

Jack would talk politics, music, art or simply the news of the day. Whenever we traveled to New York, he was talking to trainer Ron Culp about what Broadway plays to arrange for us to see. And I mean “us.” See, it was really the only time in my writing career I was included in a lot of the things the coaches did. Yes, this was a different era.

We — all of us — went to dinner together. Lunch. We talked openly about basketball, the team and everything else. Sure, I didn’t ever flatter myself into thinking the guy told me everything about the team. I knew better. But he trusted me to know what to write and what not to write and that was good enough for me.

Honestly, the big thing for me was that all the travel of an NBA season was something new to me. I had two wonderful children at home that I missed and there was a whole life going on at home that I was not a part of for several months of the year. Jack Ramsay, more than anything, helped me get through that. So did Culp, the trainer, Bill Schonely and Dave Twardzik (and later Geoff Petrie) on the radio broadcast team. Along with Rick Adelman, who was then a Ramsay assistant, we spent a lot of time just having fun. (By the way, I just took another look at the names on that list — what an incubation I had with those people, all of whom did pretty well for themselves in the NBA as it turned out.)

So many stories that will go untold, involving all of those guys. Some of them kind of meaningless now. I remember once in Sacramento, where there was a coffee shop across the street from our hotel and it was about noon when I drifted down to the lobby of our hotel to meet Jack, Twardzik and “The Schonz” for lunch.

Schonely was already making arrangements with the coach for taping that night’s pre-game show, when Ramsay had to do an interview for a few minutes setting up that night’s game. Over a period of a long season, those interviews got a little tiresome for everyone, I’m sure.

Ramsay winked at me and growled at The Schonz, “Hey, tonight ask some real questions, OK? No more of those, ‘Jack, the Indiana Pacers . . . Your thoughts.’ What is that ‘Your thoughts’ stuff? Ask a real question.”

The Schonz, as was his habit, got a little flustered but managed to laugh, as Ramsay winked at me again and we all broke into laughter. For some reason, I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the day. To this day, I’ll say to Schonz “Bill, the Portland Trail Blazers, your thoughts . . .” and we’ll both laugh.

Jack liked to make sure you were on your toes. But he had a big heart, too, and it showed in the way he treated people. NBA players were (and still are) a piece of cake for him. No matter how old he gets, and he still looks just the same as he always did, he immediately relates to players, coaches and their unique problems.

Speaking of the way he looked, I remember once after getting to know him pretty well, a flight attendant on a plane was wandering down an aisle looking for the person who had ordered something and I knew it had been Jack. So I told her to deliver it “to the guy whose picture is on the side of those bottles of poison.” (You know, that skull and crossbones thing).

Sitting near me, the broadcasters busted up, but I admit I gulped after blurting that out. Jack HAD heard it. But he just turned and smiled. He could take it, as well as dish it out.

He was then and is now such a special person. I love the guy and am so indebted to him for his kindness and the generosity. He willingly shared his knowledge and his time and the value of those to me was priceless.

I’m sure he’s touched so many others in the same way.

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It was in the late 1980s when Bill Davidson, the late owner of the Detroit Pistons bought his team its own plane, which was christened “Roundball One.”

For years, NBA teams knew it would be a big advantage to be able to fly out of cities immediately after games. Not only did it lead to help with sleeping, it kept players off the streets, out of the clubs and in the air in the time from after the game to past closing time. And it even gave teams more control of their players’ diets. It was inevitable some team would do it and we all knew as soon as one team did it, the others would have to follow suit.

You play, you hop aboard your plane, you get to the next city and check in, and there’s time for uninterrupted sleep, rather than going to bed late after a game, then getting that early morning wakeup call the next day to fly to a city where you have to play a game the next night.

This doesn’t even include the bonus of having a plane customized for the size of your players and the traveling party. The luxury of it all.

Soon, other teams were jumping on the bandwagon — with free agency around you had no choice. Travel is a big thing to players. Well, teams weren’t all buying their own planes. That’s still rare. But luxury charters became the rule, to the point where you can’t remember it being any other way. My goodness, can you imagine trying to get Shaquille O’Neal or LeBron James through the crowds of an airport? Well, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson did it.

For the beat writer, though. The charters were extremely bad news. I was lucky, my time covering the Trail Blazers was pre-charter, for the most part. And they were some very, very good times.

Not only was the team on board, but all the other personnel was, too. Talk about a traveling party.  I was covering the players so while I got to know them very well, I didn’t become overly friendly with them. It was my job not to do that. But the team trainers — always your best friends on the road – became dear friends to this day, as did people like Dave Twardzik, Geoff Petrie — guys who have gone on from broadcasting jobs to do pretty well with their lives.

You get to know people like that pretty well when you travel for days on end with them and share all sorts of experiences. On other days I will share some of those experiences — at least the ones I can talk about.

I was blessed. The travel agent for The Oregonian was the same one the team used. My reservations always matched the team’s arrangements — so I was always on the same flights. There’s nothing quite like gobbling chili dogs in Houston’s old Hobby Airport with Caldwell Jones, I might add, at 6 a.m. Or discussing the news of the day during a crowded wait for a late airplane with Kiki Vandeweghe. Some golden moments.

Watching players deal with everyday travel aggravations in those days — things like delayed or cancelled flights, early wakeup calls, bad food on planes, all of it — was educational. And I think it was for the players, too. The guys in those days had a much better idea of what the real world was all about than the guys of today.

Players in the league now don’t even see the inside of airports. They know nothing of long lines at security checkpoints. They arrive at a smaller venue, park their cars near the plane, do a quick security check and walk right onto their plane. Luggage and such things are handled for them. Food is delightful and plentiful.

For a beat writer, though, there’s nothing like the old way. Writers today travel commercial, by themselves mostly, and stay at different hotels than the team. It can be a very lonely existence and one I wouldn’t care for. In the old days, I even rode the bus with them from the airport to the hotel. And to practice, too. Oh, that’s right. No closed practice in those days, either. I went to every single practice for seven seasons. Watched the whole thing.

I do believe we didn’t need coaches to tell us who screwed up in those days. If you went to practice and paid attention, you knew who was supposed to be where on certain plays or defensive schemes. You got a basketball education, if you wanted it, from the likes of Jack Ramsay that college or high school coaches would have died for.

If you watched close at practice, you knew at games who was in the doghouse and who wasn’t. And you saw who could coach and who couldn’t.

It was all right there for you. But now it’s gone.

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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 was so lucky when I started covering the NBA back in the mid-1980s. Jack Ramsay was finishing up his magnificent career as the coach of the Trail Blazers and he was so open and honest, you couldn’t help but learn from him. The man was so generous with his patience and time, putting up with endless stupid questions from me with a smile and expansive answers.

More than that, his practices — organized to the second, upbeat and thorough — were always open to the media. That’s where I learned more basketball than anywhere else in my life.

I was speaking with him yesterday by telephone — he’s doing great, by the way, after a serious fight with cancer that stood no chance against his stubborn will — and the subject turned to the Trail Blazers. Jack’s still doing radio for ESPN and between his vast array of contacts, friends and a trusty NBA League Pass, he still knows all about what’s happening in the league.

So what do you think about your old team?

“I like that team,” he said. “A very flexible group — a lot of versatility. Good depth at every position. I have their game at Utah on Dec. 11 and I’ll get a more closeup view then. There seems to be good rapport among the players. They get things done. I think they are going to be around for a while in the playoffs.

“Greg Oden is still feeling his way, especially on offense. He’s got to find a game, which I haven’t seen yet, but I think it will come. The good thing is, you know he’ll rebound and be a defensive presence. And if he doesn’t do any more than that, that’s good.

“Brandon Roy is special. LaMarcus Aldridge may be a notch behind him but that’s pretty good.”

I was surprised at how much Jack liked the Portland point guards.

“I like them a lot, whether it’s (Sergio) Rodriguez or (Steve) Blake,” he said. “Rodriquez is very skilled and he flies under the radar. Most teams don’t realize what a good team player he is. I’ve always liked Blake. He’s a shooter. A threat. He’s a bit inconsistent with his shooting but he sees the floor well.

“I like Batum, too.”

And the coaching?

“Nate McMillan is a very conscientious worker at the craft of coaching,” Ramsay said. “I don’t think there’s any sham about him. He is who he is. That’s a very important trait for a coach. He knows the game and he’s played it. And now he’s working at coaching. There are no pretenses about him. He’s very effective and efficient. He doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself and he’s the boss of that team.”

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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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