Horrible idea. There's only one guy from the last 25 years who should be retired and that's Rasheed Wallace. No one else. He's the only two way player we've had who could get us to two WCFs including a Game 7. Aldridge was here forever and won one playoff series. Roy never won a playoff series. Dame's number will obviously be retired.
I just think it sets a really bad precedent to retire the number of a guy who lied and bailed on the team in his prime. At least Clyde gave us an opportunity to trade him.
Beat me to it. I wondered if that has ever happened before, the crowd widely booing someone at their jersey retirement ceremony? Seems like an unlikely scenario to have played out.
But this is 100% false. Aldridge gave them years to trade him. He told them point blank he wanted to play in Texas. They thought they could change his mind. They didnt. He made comments publicly about being here, but to the team he was crystal clear.
I agree, I'm sure he did tell the team, but going out and publicly telling the fans you want to retire the best blazer ever, and then telling the team privately you want out, puts the team in a very tough situation. It makes the team out to be the bad guy. That's not fair.
I think it sucks because we already set a shit precedent of having too many retired #s. So then some fans can look and say well, he gave us this, so he should be up there, especially compared to so and so. So do you break that precedent and save it for the truly great franchise legends? Do you create a ring of honor which I'm sure some would find insulting if you have both? Or do you just keep on retiring #s until most of our starters are wearing 63, 47, 71, 92 and 49?
I don't know what was going through his head or why he made the comments he did, but I know what he told them privately was far different than what he said in the press. I don't love that, but there was no blindsiding the team.
The dude wants to be loved. Maybe he thought the team would trade him and he could have his cake and eat it too?
Hypothetical: Aldridge is still playing on the Nets. They win the championship and he retires after. Does he come out publicly that he would love to have his jersey in the Rose Garden rafters? Probably not Do I think he deserves to be up there in either scenario? No.
That would be such BS. How many series did Aldridge win with Portland ? (Hint: the answer is 1 more than me)
Retiring a number is reserved for someone who did something special for a franchise. LMA was just a really good player for a longer than average time with us. Thats it, no title, no MVPs, no scoring titles or other major accomplishment were made by him. His best chance was to go for the life time achievement award with our franchise, he was on track to be the best blazer ever, but he gave that up. Its a joke that the blazers history is so barren that a player with LMAs history is even considered to be retired by us.
I always thought they got that poster slightly wrong. It should have been Buck and Duck barreling down on the viewer, and captioned, "Oh Fuck."
Bonzi Wells, years after the fact, regretted he misbehaved his way out of Portland. Greg Oden regretted not having been more dedicated to staying in shape. Aldridge regrets not getting along with Dame. Oi vey, what is it with ex Blazers?
They are early 20s years old kids. That’s usually when people make their mistakes. Just cause they are tall doesn’t change that.
Seriously. We went a little retirement happy from the 77 squad and it's a little embarrassing to be honest. Plus we are going to be running out of good numbers soon. We should consider un-retiring some numbers.
Yeah, I don't hold it against them personally. But I'd prefer to reward the exceptional players who are loyal/committed enough not to have those problems.
