Really, there oughta be appreciation threads for KP and Rich Cho. The only two Blazer GM's to graciously do meet & greets with the S2 fellowship.
The millionth example of someone going way over their skis to project their personal opinion as that of everyone in the fanbase. I rooted for both teams more or less equally as both had an awesome collection of talent, but truth be told I enjoyed watching the Sheed/PIP/Steve Smith/Bonzi/Sabas/Grant teams more as they played beautiful team ball. I viewed the whiny Quick/Canzano led Jailblazer as the BS it was fueled by no one on the team giving those Judas's an interview. Reap what you sow, why should anyone talk to lazy sensationalist A-Holes? Conversely, I will say that my all time least favorite Blazer was the me first, second & third loser Damon Stoudamire who begrudgingly was coming off the bench in the heyday of the Wallace/PIP teams. Of course that little bitch kept consistently whining to Quick, but whatevers. The true Achilles heal issue with all competitive Blazer teams is that they played in Stern's corrupt league for a small market/ratings loser. Push comes to shove and in the big game vs the big money maker, foul on Sabas's neck for getting in the way of Shaq's elbow. Foul on everyone as Laimbeer has flopped again. 5th foul on Camby for standing 20' from Steve Nash. Remember Oden picking up crucial playoff fouls on Ming for absolutely nothing? Fans aren't the only ones who pick up on this sort of consistent favoritism. The Sheed/Pip Blazers openly bristled for the mistreatment & were turned into Public Enemy #1 for it. While I didn't revel in their behavior, I understood the frustration as I'd been feeling it since the Drexler teams. Quality FAs won't come here not because of the rain, or the town, or the coach, it's because they want to win. Even with an all time talent and national brand in Lillard fronting the franchise they still can't land a single one. STOMP
The 2 worst GMs in Blazer history, but you got the order wrong. John Nash didn't make one good move as the GM. Horrible drafts & trades, but he would respond to fan's emails! STOMP
And was not only responsible for landing on Dame in the draft, but trading Gerald Wallace to the Nets for the pick that landed Dame
"Trader Bob" was the last GM that the Blazers have had who had the balls to take risks. He shot for the moon and nearly got there in 2000. His famous quote was "I'm not a chemist" when asked about how the players he gave Mike Dunleavey would fit together. He went out and got the best players he could find and trusted the coaching staff to make the puzzle pieces fit. Every GM that the Blazers have had since then has been calculated, weak, scared. They either remember or were told the last time the team crashed and burned (2004-2007), they nearly sold the team/defaulted on the RG mortgage/moved to another market. Portland NEEDS the arena to be filled. They NEED the merch sales to be strong. They NEED local TV ratings to be high. Otherwise the talk will start again. And the team is scared shitless of that happening again, so they'll do whatever it takes to keep the on-court product competitive, playoff-good but not championship-good. Play up the "us against the world" mantra to compensate. Celebrate first round series wins like the season was a success. But they'll never take those Trader Bob risks again. And us as Blazer fans have to accept that.
With Bob Whitsitt, our goal was to be elite in the regular season, then try for a championship. (That was the feeling; I'm not saying we always achieved it.) Subsequently, the 2000s feeling was to get from the .300s to the .400s to maybe even the .500s in the standings. In the 2010s it was to shoot for the playoffs, after great highs and lows during the regular season when for months it appeared we wouldn't make it. Whitsitt made Blazer fans feel that anything was possible.
https://deadspin.com/portland-wronged-the-jail-blazers-more-than-the-jail-bl-1834341801 (As I said, I love a lot of the "Jail Blazers" - Sheed and Sabonis especially - but my memory is a LOT of isolation plays from Dunleavy. He liked to hunt matchups and exploit them.)
Wasn't it "I didn't major in Chemistry?" Anyway, Whitsitt's approach worked great in parts - getting Sheed, Steve Smith and Pippen were masterstrokes, but getting Damon, Kemp, Dale Davis and re-signing Detlef, among others, not so much. Damon was perhaps his cardinal sin: we were playing great with Alvin Williams as the starter and then he was a throw-in to bring the local boy back. But you can have TOO MANY "stars", and Williams would've been a great complementary player (better size, better defender, more likely to defer to Pippen and let him be the REAL point guard). Plus he couldn't bear to let Brian Grant go for nothing, when really this would've given O'Neal a real shot. (Plus he needed to can Dunleavy sooner - going to a coach that believed in him made Jermaine flourish.)
In the process of googling, I came across this quiz. 20/20 BAYBEE. To be fair, they're not exactly obscure, most of 'em. https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/if-you-can-name-these-obscure-basketball-players-you
