Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas, Lional Hollins, Bob Gross, Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, Buck Williams, and Kevin Duckworth to many to list really. An Aldridge led team only made it out of the first round once so really never did much but get stats.
Everyone's free to post whatever they'd like, but this seems like the wrong night to ask this question. LMA gave up rights to think about "Blazer legacy" 38 minutes ago. He's a historical footnote, with some numbers in the books.
I would put Walton, Drexler, Roy, and Sheed above him. He got stats but not much else. And that's only if we're looking at stats. I would put Brian Grant above him because Brian Grant was a much much better human being, teammate, warrior, and part of the community.
Walton, Drexler and Roy are the best players to play for the franchise, though obviously Walton and Roy had short peaks before injuries wrecked their careers. I think Sheed and Aldridge is an interesting comparison, and I'd probably lean to preferring Wallace (and I have no anger towards Aldridge for leaving; I've never felt athletes choosing their own free agent destiny reflects poorly on them). So I'd say that Aldridge is probably at best the fourth-best players in Blazers' history, but I'd place him fifth.
But that's strictly from a basketball standpoint. I would put Grant above him if you look at "best blazer" to include work in the community, teammate, etc.
Yeah, I'm not generally too interested in all of that (even for teams in my area) when ranking "best players," but everyone has a different conception for what that entails. My focus is generally purely on the court/field/diamond.
Well, strictly from a court point of view, I would say that Grant might not have had the numbers, but his defense, his motor, and his energy was inspiring to the team.
Yeah, Grant was a solid player. I'd rather have Aldridge, though, even granting (no pun intended; okay, maybe a little intended) the leadership factor.
