I didn't say jersey retirement. I was mentioning how he was different from GO and Bowie in that regard (which still is a ridiculous strawman by MM).
So now it's come do to how long your career can last? Or is it how long where you with that team? If it's how long where you with that team look at Walton?
Love the guy, but no way. A player who never got out of the first round weather his team held him back or not does not deserve to have his number retired regardless of weather he made us feel good a bout our team for a while.
It shouldn't just be about contributing to a championship team. What's done is done, but retiring some of those guys from the title team is a joke. A precedent has been set, it seems. But like someone mentioned, I don't know if you want to continue to make mistakes because past mistakes were made. They should create a TrailBlazers hall of fame in the stadium, and have all sorts of memorabilia in there, and then people can see Roy's jersey hang up in there, along with the title trophy, Walton's bike, JR's pop can, and a yellow hummer.
Yup. They got a little carried away with the retiring numbers for that championship team. So if we somehow won the title this year would we retire half the team?
Not according to this board. But if it was me and the Blazers won the worl championship this year . . . I say retire the numbers of the whole team . . . including Williams!
I brought that up like 3 years ago or so, when there was jersey retirement talk, and was yelled at for saying some of the old ones shouldn't be, because they didn't have great careers here, and my example, I think, was Joel. If we won a title three years ago with him playing some really good defense, and getting 9 boards a game here, he'd have a similar argument to get his number retired as some of those guys. And Joel....well you don't retire his jersey.
Some of you guys want to be "Supreme Ruler" and re-write history. The team HAS retired 11 numbers whether you like it or not. Roy is worthy if you use the methodology used to decide the previous retired jersey's IMO. Same years, stats, career path, etc. as Petrie. Also, quit talking about creating some new category, no one is having their retired jersey UN-retired by the team. That's bush league! No one is willing to have that media day!! But, yes the team could be more selective in the future (they've been very conservative under Paul Allen BTW).
Has anyone suggested unretiring them? If so, I missed it, sorry. I think all most were saying is what you said in your last sentence, that they should be more selective going forward, not continue on with past precedent.
The current system is bush league and that created a precedent for the future. "Selective" should've started from the beginning.
Why do I have a feeling that the only people that really care about Blazer numbers that are retired are limited to us Blazer fanatics . . . and even then maybe only half of us.
I'm of the opinion that only players who (a) competed in the Finals (at the very least, the Conf. Finals!) and were a catalyst for the team's success or (b) had a long (10+ years?), successful career where the vast majority of their playing years were spent with a single team and either provided the team with (1) a long history of well above average success or (2) did extremely meaningful work for the community, deserve to have their number retired. Of course there can always be exceptions, but I think by and large this is what's key to retiring a player's number, IMO.
I follow the team in hopes of seeing a championship. For all I care retire Robin Jones' number! It is not a joke to retire any player from our Championship team - what are the odds any of us will see the day it happens in PDX again in our lifetime? What's it been...35 years and counting?
meh, we just disagree on the criteria. Retiring a jersey #, IMO, is an individual honor. You are recognizing that individual, and saying nobody should ever be allowed to wear his jersey # again, because it should always be synonymous with X. I don't think being a #5 starter, and ok contributor on a championship team falls under that. I think retired jerseys personally \should be the best of the best to have worn a jersey for that team, a very special honor. Not just hey, you helped us win a title, now nobody wears the number again. But we all have our own criteria.
I know this is a discussion board and we're open to discuss anything, but for me this sort of thing starts to become interesting when we get to the finals, or when we're in the conference finals for multiple years. As for Roy, I would need some convincing that he's a good guy - he screwed over the Blazers by going to the media multiple times in order to get a max-type contract when he (and especially his agent) knew his legs were trashed.