Is what Bob Whitsitt was. He was singlehandedly responsible for the Jail Blazers Era. He made decisions on WHO the coach should play??? WTF??? He didn't take roster input from the damn coach??? WTF??? ‘JAIL BLAZERS’ AT IT AGAIN Those cornerstones of the community are at it again. And again. And again. After Rashweed Wallace was “sentenced” for marijuana possession (charges dropped in exchange for a $650 fine, promise to attend counseling and a pinky swear to stay out of trouble for a half-year or half gram, whichever comes first), rookie Qyntel Woods – recently challenged by team president Bob Whitsitt to “get with the program” – was caught grazing in the grass last weekend in Portland. Seems those pesky police pulled over the rookie for boppin’ along at 83 in a 55 mph zone. In addition to having maryjane as a passenger, Woods was nailed for driving without a license or insurance. That left our besmirched Blazers with precious few players who haven’t gotten into a serious snag with Johnny Law or crossed over coach Maurice Cheeks. When Zach Randolph punched a restrained Ruben Patterson in the face Wednesday at the organization’s practice facility that “club” became increasingly exclusive. According to reports – subsequently confirmed by independent sources – Woods and Patterson initially got into an altercation; apparently both claim to be the lifetime leader in inhaling first hand smoke. Teammates quickly broke it up. However, while Patterson’s arms were pinned, Randolph came to his friend’s defense and suckered Patterson with a crushing, blood gushing blow. At that point, Arvydas Sabonis and Chris Dudley were no longer able to contain the enraged Patterson, who has been arrested and convicted for various violations, including the sexual assault and manhandling a guy he accused of vandalizing his car. Fortunately, the violence escalated no further as the three combatants were escorted from the premises. Just another day in paradise . . . thanks to Whitsitt and minion Mark Warkentien, the savants who control central booking for Paul Allen’s once highly venerated franchise. Management’s mindset is plain and stupid: “We supply the talent, it’s up to the coach to concoct the correct chemical balance.” That is, as long as the coach plays the personnel Whitsitt designates as worthy. When Mike Dunleavy coached the Blazers, he was under strict orders to play certain players (Shawn Kemp) a certain amount of time whether or not they practiced hard (Jermaine O’Neal), or so much as showed up (Detlef Schrempf). Moreover, Dunleavy was commanded not to play other players (Antonio Harvey, at the expense of Kemp’s daylight) under penalty of having them cut – all because of side deals cut or obscene financial investments made by Half-Whitsitt. Clearly, management’s mucked-up manipulation continues unabated. You don’t have to be a scholar of the game to realize it wasn’t Cheeks’ idea to inter Damon Stoudamire (he likes him) for an extended period of the season. And you don’t need a degree in criminal justice to identify Whitsitt’s fingerprints (instructions to play off season recruits Jeff McInnis and Antonio Daniels) to explain the unexplainable. Cheeks, who has absolutely no roster input, found a way out of Whitsitt’s bind by switching Top 50 small forward Scottie Pippen to the point. It’s inarguably, the slickest chess move of the season by any coach. As a result, the 46-27 Blazers were able to rebound from early season depression and are currently one game ahead of the Timberwolves for the fourth and final home-court playoff advantage in the west – despite Pippen undergoing recent knee surgery and the Jail Blazers averaging a personnel predicament per day. Cheeks told The Oregonian he worries about the team “breaking apart” over the latest incident. “I don’t know if it will shake the team, but I think this is going to test my coaching skills, just in trying to keep us together,” he said. “We are on a pretty good roll right now, and it’s unfortunate that this has happened. I have to make sure our family stays together. I’m just being tested again.” The question is, does practice make prison (term)? Even if management is disinclined to discipline Randolph (Whitsitt overlooked Kemp’s drug problem until eyewitnesses and evidence forced him to confront it), isn’t Law & Order commissioner David Stern obliged to levy a heavy suspension and fine? We need to stop giving this MF a pass!
He also brought over Sabonis, traded for Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith and Rasheed Wallace, and constructed a team that was up 15 points in game 7 of the Western Conference finals against an eventual dynasty. He didn't get chemistry, but to ignore his evil genius is just shortsighted. For Sabonis alone I can forgive him many things. (He also drafted both Jermaine O'Neal and Zach Randolph at #17, if my memory doesn't fail me.)
He was a pirate of a GM in an era when bags of Paul Allen's money were all that was necessary to draw aging free agent vets to Portland. I have to admit that part of it was fun, but it would have been nice if he'd at least had some level of concern about player character.
He got us the closest to winning a championship over the last 20 years. So, there's that. I'd take that over a treadmill team.
I never really liked Whitsitt, so he never got a pass from me. As a conservative (which I know is a black eye around here) it bugs me that some of these guys were treated like criminals because they did weed. Now I’ve never smoked or been into that stuff but that seems like way to much. Now Whitsitt did bring in some real pieces of work, and some of them seemed to be legit criminals, but smoking weed doesn’t constitute “criminal to me”. I met a few of those guys at basketball tournaments when I was in HS and none of the ones I met seemed like bad guys. Anyways Whitsitt did not do a good job because he never had the patience to let things grow, and he didn’t care at all about the character of the men he signed.
It's not a black eye... I love a TRUE fiscal conservative. Those are the best ones! It's the social conservatives that I don't usually get along with. Being conservative is a great thing. Liberals and conservatives don't really see how much they have in common.
I don’t know what I am lol, I know I lean right more than maybe I should. I do believe that I have a lot to learn and even those who have starkly different beliefs than I do can teach me things. Anyways, I wasn’t a fan of Whitsitt, though he made things happen it was often just to say something happened, there was never continuity and he certainly didn’t hold guys accountable, or put them in a position where they felt like they should try being “good” people. If there is one thing I respect about Dame, is that he seems like a genuinely good citizen who cares about other people, that’s what a leader does.
Even worse, he held the coach accountable for playing the guys HE wanted him to play. Something the GM should not be involved in. Dunleavy couldn't even control his own rotation... I'm sorry that makes you SUCK as a GM. Bottom line Trader Bob... You'll ALWAYS be the MOTHERFUCKER who traded Brian Grant for Cocaine Kemp!!! I'll tell you somthin' about Bob Whitsitt.... FUCK Bob Whitsitt!
I loved the jail blazers. Dont give a shit if they burned the town to the ground as long as they won.
Your article was written by unpopular conservative Peter Vecsey, as part of his social crusade, this time for law & order. Like all his editorials, some "facts" are unverified. That's why they threw him off his national NBA network games halftime gig, and New York newspapers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Vecsey_(sports_columnist)
Bob fielded the last contending teams the Blazers have had. His job was to get us the best players. Chemistry is 100% on the coach.
Anyone who doubts the greatest entity to have ever walked the Earth--afterlife ghost, inanimate rock, person, place, or thing--should be taken out with the cat litter.
1 western conference meltdown and then a bunch of years being the laughing stock of the NBA world. It’s not all on Whitsitt, he did get a lot done, made a ton of moves. After the 2000 wcf’s that team imploded though. I wonder if he went back and did his college chemistry? His record was really good as the Blazers GM, I feel like ultimately whether it was his fault or not the 2000 wcf, created a land slide of players at the end of their primes, bad moves, and impatience to try to get back that ended up setting the franchise back half a decade.
Nonsense. Portland had a small-town paranoia that they were a laughing stock. The rest of the nation didn't care. Look at the list of tiny scandals in my Wikipedia excerpt above. Did you think about any, after they got their 1 day in the news? Only Oregon cared about its local news, not the nation.
What's funny about this statement, is I didn't even live in Portland or Oregon during the Jail Blazer era, and just about everyone I knew would give me crap about the Blazers, and the "Jail Blazers". Eventually the Blazers did get so bad, that no one cared anymore though so I guess that's great. Small town-paranoia, just about all a New York basketball fan would know about the Blazers back then was they were the team with all the criminals. Might not have been in the news papers everyday, because they had better crap to talk about, but it didn't mean they didn't know, or laugh at the Blazers.
National writers get their knowledge from local writers. Vecsey and others harped on the Blazers only because they read it constantly in the hateful Oregonian. Why weren't all those other mini-scandals known as well as ours? Because the Oregonian enjoyed barbecuing the Blazers, while other hometown papers didn't think their own scandals were important. They were right. For example, the Seattle media barely mentioned that Rashard Lewis got a ticket for doing 90 on a floating bridge. The more adult Seattle media covered Ruben Patterson's Seattle trial a little, but not the way the juvenile Oregonian enjoyed repeating it for years afterward, to this day. Who gives a shit? Now that grass is legal, all you critics of it should be embarrassed. Dviss disappoints me by headlining this right-wing editorial.
Sell your soul GM. Yes, he built a team that ALMOST got it done, but the City became a laughing stock around the country, and that choke in that conference final was one of the five worst moments in franchise history. I broke my reclining chair when Shaq dunked and sealed the Blazers fate. I was enraged seeing him bigfoot walk down the court. I don't miss that era at all.
