For the old-time Blazers fans......

Today, I met and chatted with Tom Owens, former starting center (1977-1981)(then traded to Indy for the Bowie '84 pick) for our Portland Trail Blazers. I was in LO for an appointment and he was finishing up his as I walked in.

He is still an active Blazers watcher and had many opinions about the current team (a. paid too much for Harkless and Leonard with no other suitors/offers. b. Loves CJ not complaining 2 yrs ago when others were getting more PT than he was tho he was healthy late in the year).

He ranks MJ as the greatest ever. Russell, Magic, Bird, Kobe round out the top 5. He didn't include Lebron because of that awful jumper! He also hates that big guys can't shoot free throws. : )

He said that playing for the 1977-78 team was the greatest EVER! His career high point. Wonderful team!

Anyway - just a very nice 30 minute visit with an ol' favorite!

 

Posts like this are awesome to hear. Seriously. Did you get an autograph? Would be a great story to go with it, to pass on....

 

Best thread of summer! Great story Harry...thanks for sharin' it

 

It IS up there, however, I was thinking about bumping your fishing thread. I really enjoyed that one!

 

I think that one died before anybody saw my fish...I'm going for trout tomorrow

 

I'm gonna bump it, when I get some time. Make sure whoever heckled you about pics, sees them. Also to show you my favorite rod/reel. That thread, and the posts by @MarAzul were much like this one. Really cool!

 

You can change my thread title to "I want to poke your fish" if you want

 

The center who follows Bill Walton can't avoid disappointed fans, but Owens was a good player. I saw him on national TV games in his 5 ABA years. I think the TV contract lasted only a couple of years.

Any former NBA players who reside around Portland should be interviewed regularly by the local media. When LeRoy Ellis died about 4 years ago, Canzano had no excuses for why he'd never driven to his house to write an article about him.

 

I did not ask for an autograph, but he did say he'd drop off a trading card for me on his next visit.

The odd thing about the encounter was that just on Tuesday evening I was looking at my old trading cards and looking specifically for who else from the past I should try to get in terms of filling in gaps of memorable players and decided that I needed to have an Owens card. Was looking them up on Ebay and all. Weird!!

 

That is so cool, Raincoat.

 

On the topic of ex-Blazers in Portland, I was at a Music In The Park event in West Linn last night, and saw Steve Blake and Channing Frye. I heard that Steve kept a home here in West Linn, so that didn't surprise me. I was a bit surprised to see Channing Frye though.

A little Tom Owens basketball trivia -
Did you know that Tom Owens played on the St Louis Spirits 1974-75 team, that also include (soon to be) Blazers Maurice Lucas, Steve Jones, and Bernie Fryer?

 

Were they hanging together? Doesn't Frye have a condo in the Pearl?

 

I didn't see them hanging together. Blake was there with his wife and son. I saw Frye walk by a bit later

 

Frye has a condo in the South Waterfront. RoLo rented it from Frye the two years he was here. And what I'm curious about is what TO has been up to all these years.....

 

Well everyone is entitled to their opinion, but... I don't think Kobe belongs in a top five list and other other hand, I don't know how you leave Wilt Chamberlain off the list, perhaps Oscar Robertson too.. Then I know most fans today like to call MJ the greatest ever, but I am not willing to give him that over Bill Russel. When Russel entered the NBA, he was the best basketball player in the NBA the first day. MJ was not. When it comes to the greatest basketball player ever, my mind can not skip Sabas. The Sabas I saw play in the 80s in Europe and the 88 Olympics.

To be fair, Tom probably never saw some of these greats in their day, you can't get it all from stats.

 

Bird was great but I'd put Kareem ahead of him, OTOH, how do you compare different positions and different eras?

 

He specifically mentioned why he left Chamberlain off the list.....because he wilted in the playoffs when things were toughest. He compared Lebron similarly.
He knew Wilt could have done whatever he wanted physically, but chose not to for some reason.

 

Well, I would not call it "wilt" in Chamberlain's case. That might be a view you get from the stats, but in reality, Wilt had to go against Russell in the finals. Coming out second in that match should not be viewed as wilt. Chamberlain and the Lakers finally get past the wilt tag with no Russell to face and the Lakers finally get a coach.