Why did the Blazers kill Rudy Fernandez?

What would have been different is that they would have been an even better title contender. Maybe they don't blow a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter with Payton. Personally, I'd have to say that Payton, Pippen and Sheed would have been the nucleus of a pretty amazing defensive team.

The Paper loved them until they began disappointing on the court. They were still a winner, in terms of being a well above .500 team, but they were no longer a serious title contender.

 

What I meant was, what would have been different about the Oregonian disliking the team. The paper didn't base their dislike on wins, so Payton creating a few extra wins wouldn't have changed their opinion. But Payton would have made the locker room more discordant, which is what the paper cared about.

Payton didn't create as many wins as his stats might indicate. As soon as Wally Walker fired Karl, the Sonics dropped from about .700 to barely over .500.

 

I tend to disagree. The "character matters" crusade began after the Blazers had fallen from contender status to one-and-done. At that point, the paper focused on incidents involving Sheed, Stoudamire and Wells rather than what on-court value the team still possessed.

 

I'm sorry, but if the Blazers won a championship or two, no one would ever care that they were the Jailblazers. Shoot, we'd just embrace it like Raiders fans do. It was the fact that the team failed, then began to squabble itself apart that allowed the O to jump all over them and ride them all the way to the ground. If we win game 7 in 2000 and then the finals, then Brian Grant re-signs, we have a lot more years with the "Jail blazers" and no one cares.

If GP came here and won championships, no one would give a rat's left nut whether he had squabbles with team mates or got into trouble. Now if he came in and tore the team apart (which I highly doubt, at least not for a long while) then people would be up in arms.

 

Payton never won championships. In fact, he was just one among equals on the good Karl teams. Only after Karl and Kemp left, did Payton take charge. That's when his occasional unbearablility became frequent. And when the .700 years ended immediately.

He was a good player, like Andre Miller, but you couldn't count on his shooting, like Miller. I'd rather have Miller. In mouth activity, they are opposites.

Yap yap yap yap yap......all...game.....long.....dissing guy he's guarding...

after the game, goes into locker room....

Yap yap yap yap yap......dissing teammates....

makes rare public appearance, forced by sponsor to promote his own product.....

painful fearful silence....leaves early....autograph-seeking kids crying.....

(He escaped a mall appearance and "Home, James!"-ed his limo driver out of Bellingham, Washington, and the local paper actually ran an editorial against him. He did that all over the state.)

 

Yeah, I loved him too.