Derek Anderson Rips on Blazers GM

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PORTLAND, ORE. - For a moment, Derek Anderson has moved on. The Trail Blazers are in his past, no more than the next team on the Rockets' schedule.

Then he thinks of what could have been, what should have been to his way of thinking. He remembers all the hopes and expectations he brought with him when he left the Spurs to sign with the Blazers in 2001, then just one year removed from the Western Conference finals.

Before long, the anger and insult he felt last season is back. The excitement he had when he arrived in Portland had been wholly replaced with disappointment, unfulfilled optimism and a bitterness focused on general manager John Nash, whom he openly blames for the Trail Blazers' collapse and his own unsatisfying four seasons in Portland.

"It could have been right," Anderson said before returning to Portland for the Rockets' game tonight against the Trail Blazers. "We had so much talent. We had every piece. Everything was good. We made the playoffs my first two years, and then John Nash got there and everything went south. His first two years, we didn't make the playoffs. Everything went wrong. We had chaos. We had legal, off-the-court problems. On the court, we didn't have any. He started trading guys, not playing guys, telling the coach what to do. It just went bad."

A Trail Blazers representative said Nash was traveling and unavailable for comment Friday and Saturday.

Anderson, however, said his dissatisfaction was solely with the Trail Blazers general manager. He praised former coach Maurice Cheeks, chairman Paul Allen and president Steve Patterson, a former Rockets general manager who had been the vice president of the Texans and Aeros before moving to the Blazers.

His enmity for Nash, however, was so clear that when he was asked about former teammate Ruben Patterson's suspension this season, Anderson spoke of Nash.

"It doesn't change," Anderson said. "Ever since the general manager, John Nash, got there, they stopped making the playoffs, having all these problems.

"I'm out. I know what I want to say, but I'm out. I'm done with it. I just think the general manager, John Nash, has made the biggest moves, the biggest decisions. It falls to him. The owner (Paul Allen) is a great guy. Steve Patterson is a great guy. Everybody knows he's not the problem. It's John Nash."

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