I see a lot of responses that are suggesting he deserves it in part to him "being a great guy" - which is debatable, and I would argue the other side. So again, leave out his debatable character, and you're left with a sometimes amazing one-on-one player who lead the team to a series of one-and-dones. Not retirement worthy.
For perspective. Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers is retiring this season after 14 years in the NFL, he's the all-time receptions and yards leader for the team, won a Super Bowl, helluva nice guy, exemplary human being and thousands of people lined up in the cold last week to get tickets for his retirement ceremony ... and there's not a snowball's chance in hell his jersey will be retired and he probably won't even make the ring of honor.
What Roy meant to the franchise over that short period can't be measured just in his overall numbers, so I want to say yes. But it's hard to justify it when he never even won a playoff series. I wish he'd sign a 10 day contract with Portland, walk off to a standing ovation and retire a Blazer though.
It's kind of who cares in my book on how many numbers the Blazers retire. If they want to use other teams standards, that's fine. If they want to broaden it to retire more numbers, works for me too. If I was to choose 1 player to have their number retired in the last 15 years, it would be Roy.
Meh, I guess. Hasn't Paul Allen already put enough in Roy's bank account? Is a 10 day contract worth the Roy circle jerk? Not my money I suppose. But I'd rather our team concern itself with adding people who can actually play. You might have noticed we could use a few on the bench.
Makes sense . . . although I hope they have some internal policy against that. Would hate to be a Blazers fan all my life and never see a number retired, but that is just me. I guess I just don't see it as such a big deal and more as a way to remember some of my favorite players. If retiring a number is seen as a huge monumental moment in franchise history that only goes to the highly accomplished, I could see why many don't want his number retired.
It blows me away that people think three consecutive one-and-dones is a complete failure when NOBODY HAD ANY RIGHT TO EXPECT MAKING THE PLAYOFFS THE FIRST TWO TIMES!!! The third one? Fail. The first two? Triumphant over-achievements.
Yes, those teams over-achieved. But this was not a historic achievement by B-Roy, that doesn't make him an all-timer ... which is typically what a jersey retirement in sports signifies.
LaMarcus needs to play at or above his current level for another 4 or 5 years putting him at or near the top of the franchise's list for points and rebounds. Lillard? Way, way too early to be talking about him, he'll need multiple all-star appearances and a ten year career in a Blazers uniform at minimum. Bottom line: both are going to need some deep playoff runs to really deserve it.
If we're going to start retiring numbers because of the "warm and fuzzies" then we have to retire 44 for Briant Grant as well. At least he helped get us to two WCF appearances. Fair is fair.
You're right. Every fan thinks their young All-Stars and ROY's will eventually be worthy of a retired jersey, but obviously it doesn't happen a lot of the time. It's not too early to speculate, though. (What's the point of this board if not to speculate?) Both guys are right on the career track to eventually have their numbers retired. But a lot can happen between now and then.
1 Larry Weinberg = World Champion (owner) 13 Dave Twardzik = World Champion 14 Lionel Hollins = World Champion 15 Larry Steele = World Champion 20 Maurice Lucas = World Champion 22 Clyde Drexler = Top 50 NBA players, made it to the Finals 30 Bob Gross = World Champion Terry Porter = All Star, made it to the Finals 32 Bill Walton = World Champion 36 Lloyd Neal = World Champion 45 Geoff Petrie= teams's first really great player and All Star 77 Jack Ramsay = World Champion See a theme? No to Roy - great player, but not worthy of having his number retired
