Event Kerry Eggers live here in the forum, Dec. 10th, 7-8pm! Answering your questions about the Blazers!

Question:

Who was the most troublesome player the Management had to deal with - off the court?

 

MUCH love Kerry.

A. Do you think the GM owes it to the fans to answer/be asked tough questions? how do you feel about the current media access to the team?

B. In your opinion should we keep or trade CJ? If keep, what type of player(s) added to the team could vault them into contention?

 

I'm not a broadcaster. I can pretty much guarantee, though, that no broadcasters had any directives to use the term to "amplify ratings." Jail Blazers was a catchy phrase that got picked up early and -- though the "Jail" part was harsh and mostly incorrect -- was a metaphor for the troubles of the team through that period.

 

There's no doubt it was Isaiah "J.R." Rider. The dude was a rare talent but a walking time bomb, irresponsible, at times lazy and certainly a disruptive part of what was going on with the team at the time.

 

Thanks for taking time out of your day to speak to us!

 

Very difficult question. CJ's play has fallen off a tad this year. I'm not sure if it's due to a slightly changed role (playing more with Damian, less with others where he gets the ball more and more shots), a couple of minor injuries or what. He is still a very valuable player beginning his peak years as an athlete. He gets along great with Damian and likes being here. That said, his value will never be higher. If they could acquire a power forward with shooting range -- a Blake Griffin type -- you would think they'd have to consider it.

 

Q: Are there any good stories from the Jail Blazer era, that for legal or other reasons, haven't been told..... (You can answer this one yes or no, if you want.)

 

I didn't know Paul well. Covered his team for 25-plus years, did many interviews with him (until the latter five-six years or so), always exchanged greetings when we passed in the hall, but very little casual conversation. So I have no first-hand stories to pass on. I'll say this: When we did chat during an interview, it seemed like just one regular guy shooting the breeze with another -- not one of the world's richest men conversing with a hack.

 

Were any of the players unwilling to speak to you for your book?

 

The press coverage of Heimlich was not fair to him. So many members of the media used terms like "convicted" and "felon" that simply weren't true. Heimlich went undrafted not because major league clubs questioned his character or worried that he would cause them trouble. They simply didn't want the bad publicity his signing would generate. That's a shame.

 

My pleasure. Hope you will go out and get the book, either for yourself or as a gift.

 

There are stories I heard that I could not publish, primarily to protect the source that told me.

 

Kerry, who is your all-time favorite Blazer player and why?

 

Yes there were, and I listed many of them in the acknowledgements. I would have loved to have talked to Bob Whitsitt, JR Rider, Rasheed Wallace, Bonzi Wells, Scottie Pippen and a few others. They either didn't return my calls or declined to speak for the book. Damon Stoudamire and I spoke for 15 minutes on the phone, but he also decided not to cooperate for the book, in part because he said he and former Portland teammates were putting together a documentary and wanted to tell the story in their own words.
On the other hand, I'm grateful to the 70-plus people who did speak on the record, including all four head coaches (PJ Carlesimo, Mike Dunleavy, Maurice Cheeks and Nate McMillan), most of the assistants during that time and about 25 players.

 

Were you surprised by any of those guys declining to speak or was that pretty much expected going into the process?

 

Why did the Blazers turn their back on rural Oregon? They used to be (less than 10 years ago) very involved in the Central Oregon community, played pre-season games in Redmond, were promoted in local media...

They are pretty much unknown around here now.