It's a close call, but my name says it all... Steve Patterson and the way he handled that Darius Miles situation. After Darius cursed Cheeks out, the team fined him and then tried to privately negotiate a 150,000$ kickback in secret (with interest), and when the Oregonian reported it, Patterson said their reports were just erroneous subterfuge... but we later found out the reports were all true... Good times. I also remember that press conference where he addressed the media like Darth Vader. And the entire front office seemed to run on distrust, fear, and intimidation. Remember him searching employees computers in order to stop leaks to the press? He made it so that he was the only front office employee that could comment on the team. He laid off over 100 employees. On a lighter note, I haven't seen anyone bring up that little interview Darius did in which he complained about not having a bobblehead... I mean, really...
Easy. Bonzi Wells flipping off Blazers fans then calling us "unprofessional" - hence my handle. 2nd would be Wallace's numerous on court temper tantrums and shattering the NBA record for T's in a season. The towel incident ranks up there as well. That was atrocious. What a fuck head.
Bingo. Those maggots disgracing the Scarlet & Black robbed me of my birthright--to be a proud Blazer fan.
To me, you always seemed indifferent towards the offcourt problems. Which, IMO, wasn't too surprising as you were (are) in Seattle.....far removed from all that.
Where does the Kenny Anderson era come in? It's funny - I was anti-Whitsitt in the beginning, and particularly anti- the Strickland-for-'Sheed trade, but came to really appreciate Rasheed. However, I don't think there was a single free agent signing (except Brian Grant, I guess) of his that I liked, and Anderson was the worst.
I still miss Viktor. He was like a poor man's Batum. But he had a great Euro championships when Russia beat Spain in the final and his coach said he was at least as valuable as Kirilenko. Plus he netted us LaMarcus. (Of course, Telfair + $ netted us Roy, so....)
What was wrong with Kenny? He seemed pretty professional in his 1-plus year here, he played hard and I think played some of his best ball here. Of course, we ran into the Lakers that one year, but I was a big Kenny fan and thought he played his heart out.
LMAO... that picture was our FUTURE CORE! Amazingly none will be in the nba in 2 years LMAO GOD THAT WAS AWFUL. YOU NOTICE NASH NEVER GOT ANOTHER JOB.
Actually, he got a job as GM of the Sixers, and for some reason hasn't completely demolished them:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nash_(basketball) I guess he used up all his bad ideas here. I've always felt there's only so much horrible in every person. By the time he left here he was an empty husk that somebody else must have filled with something less fetid.
I'm sort of with Ed in that I think a lot of the off-court stuff was overblown and the product of reporters trying to make names for themselves. (Of course, Ed is an inhuman android with his emotion chip removed, so he actually wouldn't care WHATEVER they did.) Of course they did the stuff, and it was stupid, for the most part, but if you think that any professional athlete isn't a collossal jerk, then 99% of the time you're in for disappointment. I just think most places are big enough so that the athletes can get up to what they get up to without it coming out. Plus I guess we were spoilt by the Drexler era, but even then - remember the Salt Lake incident that Kersey was involved in? The only unforgivable stuff really was Ruben's sexual assault (which happened before he was signed by the Blazers - Whitsitt being a forgiving fellow) and the dog-fighting. Everything else was pretty tame, and mostly fans were just upset to find out that the players were actually pretty solipsistic and regarded this as a job. Least fave players of that era: Ruben Rider Kenny Anderson Zach Randolph
I finally flipped on that team when Rasheed had his loading dock incident with the ref. I defended 'Sheed when that first hit; I didn't think it could possibly be true, let alone worth a 7 game suspension. Then, witnesses start to appear, and apparently it was a much more volatile situation than was even reported at the time. I also remember when Bonzi Wells spit on Danny Ferry. Again, my initial reaction was to believe Bonzi when he denied doing it. Then, evidence appears, multiple witnesses, and another Blazer let us all down. Add in the time he flipped off the fans, then (again) lying about doing it. On teams chock full of douchebags, Bonzi had to be the douchiest of them all. What's funny to me is how some people still defend these thugs. I did for a long time, then finally gained a dose with common sense regarding these guys and how they were representing Portland on a national stage.
