My favorite Blazers: Buck Williams
The husky voice carried across the phone lines from Albania, north of Greece off the Adriatic Sea, where Buck Williams and his wife were visiting their son Malek, who is married to an Albanian woman.
A warm, wonderful goodbye to ‘The Schonz’
He was always comfortable in the limelight, taking that spot on center stage with confidence and verve.
Lillard is Blazers’ biggest scorer — Who is the G.O.A.T player for the Trail Blazers?
The wait is over. In his 11th NBA season, Damian Lillard is the Trail Blazers’ career scoring leader, having passed Clyde “The Glide” Drexler last week at Oklahoma City.
Should Buck Williams be a Hall of Famer? Says Fordham Prep’s sports analytics club: ‘Yes’
Those in Portland in the 1990s recall Charles Linwood “Buck” Williams as the lunch-bucket power forward whose acquisition proved the missing link in the Trail Blazers’ rise to NBA Finals in ’90 and ’92.
A true pro -- Terry Porter helps out in a big way on a book-signing night at Moda Center
Terry Porter and I go back a long way.
Terry was an All-Star point guard when I first covered the Trail Blazers for The Oregonian. He was kind enough to make an appearance at a Sportswriters Camp for aspiring journalists that Dwight Jaynes and I ran for seven years in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. I was privileged to represent the Professional Basketball Writers Association in presenting him with the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for the 1992-93 season.
Talking Jail Blazers, Jerome Kersey and the NBA with the 3&D Love Podcast crew …
I had fun spending an hour with these Portland natives and obviously diehard Blazer fans. We covered a lot of ground and a lot of NBA history. Give it a listen!
Pondering what’s happening with Damian Lillard, Ethan Thompson, Chris Duarte and Terry Porter …
Ruminations on roundball heading into the weekend …
• There is plenty of consternation in Rip City over the NBA’s “snub” of Damian Lillard as a starter in the upcoming All-Star Game. You fans who are up in arms: Sit down right now. You still have a chance to win the “Biofreeze Hoop With Dame” contest, where you can shoot it out with Lillard and win up to $100,000. (Personally, I’d rather have it out with Brooke Olzendam in ping pong.).
On shoddy officiating, COVID’s impact and Pac-12 women’s hoops, along with a little Terry Stotts and Charles Barkley …
Reflections from ye old scribe on a few sporting subjects …
• I’m rarely one to criticize sports officials. I have friends who are referees and admire their integrity and intestinal fortitude. I umpired and refereed during my high school and college years. I believe those who work college and pro sports most often do a very credible job.
But what happened Saturday night in Seattle was nothing short of a travesty.
On Cliff Robinson, Another one gone before his time From the early ‘90s Blazers …
Cliff Robinson’s death Friday at the age of 53 leaves another gaping hole in the heart of Rip City.
In 2008, Kevin Duckworth died of congestive heart failure. He was 44.
In 2015, Jerome Kersey passed away from the effects of a blood clot. He was 52.
Hey Guys! I Was Listening
Seems that Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells used the occasion of a recent interview on “Rip City Drive” to engage a little hit-and-run action on my book, “Jail Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball.”