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

Any chance we can reverse those?

 

Kenny loves to tell JailBlazer era stories.

 

Kerry just emailed me, he said thank you, he had a very good time. Also he asked me to tell you guys that....

Broadway Books has plenty of books and will have them at 20 percent discount all day Wednesday (1714 NE Broadway).

Also having first public book-signing Sunday from 1-3 pm at Bridgeport Mall Barnes & Noble.

 

You just messed with him.

barfo

 

Editor's note: This is the third of four parts featuring excerpts from "Jail Blazers: How the Portland Trail Blazers Became the Bad Boys of Basketball," a new book written by Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune.

The book is available at Portland bookstores, including Annie Bloom's and Broadway Books along with assorted Powell's and Barnes & Nobles outlets. The book also can be ordered through Amazon.

As the Trail Blazers swung into the final two weeks of the regular season, coach Maurice Cheeks said all the adversity would have a silver lining.

"Because of the things that have happened," he said, "we have become more of a family."

And then, there was a family feud.

On April 2, during a practice at the team's Tualatin training facility before a home game with Utah, Ruben Patterson and Zach Randolph got into an altercation that would live on in Blazer lore.

Patterson had a habit of giving the business to younger players, such as Randolph and Qyntel Woods. Randolph and Woods, says then-strength and conditioning coach Bobby Medina, "were very close." "They were always together," Medina says today. "They were like little puppies — pushing each other, horsing around. They were like brothers."

"Zach and Qyntel made a pact," says Herb Brown, then an assistant coach. "They told each other, 'If Ruben goes after one of us and tries to Bogart us, the other guy is going to stick up for him.'"

"It had been brewing between Ruben and Zach," says Jay Jensen, then the team's trainer.

It started during an incident the previous season.

"Sometimes horseplay would get out of hand," Jensen says today. "They were horsing around in the locker room before practice. You could hear them egging each other on. Rasheed was involved.

"Zach and Ruben started wrestling. Ruben was so dang strong. He picked Zach up and threw him to the ground, and it bruised Zach's butt. He could hardly walk for a while. He was limping. By the time practice began, Zach hadn't forgotten."

"He body-slammed me on my ass," Randolph would say.

The second incident happened as Cheeks was sending the players through a scrimmage session. Woods, who was on Randolph's team, was guarding Patterson. "Qyntel was a pretty athletic guy," Medina says. "It was one of those days when he was getting the better of Ruben, and Ruben was getting frustrated. Guys on his team were giving him a hard time, like, 'Hey, stop the guy.'




"Ruben started playing more physical with Qyntel, fouling him, trying to post him up. Qyntel was a street guy. He was a fighter. He was a tough guy, too. It started to get physical. There were no referees. Ruben was backing Qyntel down and beasting him. It got into a push-and-shove thing."

Randolph threw an initial punch that landed. Players moved in to separate the two. Chris Dudley and Dale Davis grabbed Patterson. As Ruben was wrapped up, "Zach punched him in the eye," Medina says.

"Ruben went straight to the ground," Medina says. "For a few seconds, he was out cold. As he was coming to, Coach Cheeks moves in and says, 'Zach, you and Qyntel get out of here, now.'"

Randolph and Woods were hurried out the building by assistants Dan Panaggio and Jimmy Lynam, "before Ruben killed them," Panaggio says. "Coach Lynam comes into the training room with blood all over his shirt, hustling Zach and Qyntel out the door," Jensen says.

A dazed Patterson, meanwhile, was sitting in a pool of blood from the sucker punch.

"As Ruben was coming to and seeing his own blood, he went into a fury," Medina says. "They couldn't hold him back. He took off running to the locker room. He was not going to let it end like that."




"Ruben escaped," Panaggio says. "He was like a raging bull. Jimmy and I looked at each other like, 'What do we do now?'"

"There were people trying to grab him and stop him," Jensen says. "Ruben was like a crazed animal. It was a horrific, surreal sight."

"It was bad," Dudley says today. "When you have big, strong men throwing real men punches, bad things happen. I'm sure if you talk to Zach now, he regrets it. I'm sure he would say, 'I was young and shouldn't have thrown the punch.'"

Randolph says as much … sort of.

"Just something that happened in the heat of things," he says today. "You regret lots of stuff, but things happen."

But Randolph knew he was out of line for being the third man in.




"It was a nothing thing between Ruben and Qyntel, just Ruben being Ruben," Panaggio says. "He was mischievous but had no bad bones in his body."

All of Randolph's teammates thought he was out of line.

"We have to accept Zach with open arms," Stoudamire, a team co-captain, said at the time. "What he did was wrong, but you still have to accept him because he's still part of the team."

The next day, Cheeks and general manager Bob Whitsitt addressed the situation to the media.

"I've been around a long time, and things happen in practice," Cheeks said. "But this one was more serious. I don't know if it will shake the team, but this is going to test my coaching skills, just in trying to keep us together. We've been on a pretty good roll, and it's unfortunate this has to happen. I have to make sure our family stays together."

In a prepared statement, this was Whitsitt's message: "While these types of disagreements happen at practice during the course of a season due to the physical and competitive nature of basketball, this instance crossed the line. This type of behavior will not be tolerated by our organization without the individuals being held accountable for their actions."




Randolph was suspended for two games and fined $100,000. Patterson, meanwhile, was on probation until May 14 from the case in which he entered a modified guilty plea on a sexual assault charge involving his nanny.

"Ruben couldn't afford to get in trouble about anything," Medina says. "The next day, we were playing Utah. He came to the Rose Garden before the game with his wife, Shannon. His eye was swollen. Jay Jensen was looking over Ruben, and Whitsitt came into the room. She saw him and said, 'Something needs to be done about what happened. Look at this man here. He's his kids' hero.' Ruben was sitting there like a little puppy, his head down." Speaking to reporters, Patterson took the high road … sort of.

"I forgive him," he said of Randolph. "He's my teammate. He made a mistake, and I can't retaliate, try to fight him or beat him up, because I'm on probation and I would get in trouble. I was pissed about the situation, but we have to try to win, so I'm going to let it ride."

Patterson played 10 minutes with a swollen left eye in the 93–88 loss to the Jazz, going scoreless with no rebounds and two turnovers while complaining of obstructed vision.

The next day, X-rays showed a fractured left eye socket.

"I'm an animal," he told the media, "so I'll be OK."

 

Got a message from Kerry today,

Hi Sly,
I’m having two book signings over the next few days — this Thursday at Broadway Books (1714 NE Broadway) from 7-8 p.m. and Wednesday, Jan. 23 at Annie Bloom’s (7834 SW Capitol Hwy) from 7-8 p.m.
Could you help get the word out?
Thanks!

 

Will do. Been reading his book. Hard to put down.