Subscribe Feed (RSS)Because it’s kind of hard to get through a Sunday paper these days for a lot of reasons, I thought I’d point out Jeff Baker’s Sunday review, which was kind of buried, of David Halberstam’s classic book about the Trail Blazers.
Baker is a one-time Blazer beat reporter and he gives the book high marks, which most people do. I believe if you want to call yourself a fan of the Trail Blazers you really need to slog through this book. It’s a must. But I say “slog” because I’m probably one of the few readers who isn’t a huge fan of Halberstam’s ponderous style — where paragraphs seem to go on for days.
But the decorated author had a lot of inside access during the season he followed the team and certainly chronicled a unique time in the Blazers’ history. It was basically the breaking apart of the championship team and Halberstam ended up buying into the players’ side of the whole thing — that former owner Larry Weinberg was a cheapskate who should have torn up player contracts and overpaid all his players to keep them around.
As it turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered. Most of them had played their best basketball in Portland or were habitually injured and it would have fallen apart just about as quickly if they’d stayed.
In summary, “The Breaks of the Game” is way too much of a book not to be in print. I hope a whole new generation of Trail Blazer fans will have a chance now to peruse it.
(And an added bonus on the same page is Matt Love’s review of Harry Glickman’s classic “Promoter Ain’t a Dirty Word” — a very fun book that is NOT still in print but you can find at assorted second-hand stores in the area. True Blazer fans will want that book, for sure — as well as this great book and this one, too, to complete your Trail Blazer library.)
Tags: Breaks of the Game, David Halberstam, Dwight Jaynes, Harry Glickman, Jeff Baker, Matt Love, Portland Trail Blazers, The Oregonian
Amazing book. I read it during the crash and burn of 06-07, and it fit wonderfully.
Of course, I then enjoyed Halberstam’s ponderous style through Summer of ‘49 and Playing for Keeps.
I would highly recommend any book by Halberstam, especially Breaks of the Game, which I still refer back to from time to time as it is filled with great anecdotes.
Every spring through 2002 I would resist the urge to put my fist through the TV every time I saw an advertisement for the Kemper Open (apparently some other corporation bought out the naming rights to the infamous golf tournament which denied all Blazer fans the chance to see the postgame championship celebration on TV).
I read the piece yesterday about Glickman’s book as well. I picked the book up a few years ago with the sole intent of finding out how the Memorial Coliseum was built and funded (for stadium research purposes). Unfortunately the book was very light on details regarding the MC, but I’ll have to go back and review it again for more details on how the city evolved during that era.
I enjoyed the photo of the Blazers huddle accompanying the article because in the background there is a partial photo of me just above Ramsay’s right shoulder holding the slack of that tv cable for the cameraman. Pretty much a patchwork team just 2 years after the championship. In the 2 years I was there I remember names such as: Kevin Kunnert, Don Buse, “Hammerin” Hank McDowell, Peter Gudmundson, and Kelvin Ransey, whos wife was always begging him to take her to dinner after the game in the tunnel by the locker room. Darnell Valentine always had a huge bouquet of flowers delivered to him before games.
I think the best stories in BOTG are courtesy of Wayne Thompson.