Rasheed Wallace and Scottie Pippen on 2000 Game 7 loss vs. Lakers

Hate to be picking at old wounds, but

 

I love both these guys....and Sheed beyond all the tech fouls is a good man and great player...Scottie is a legend..I enjoyed their interview...Sheed owned that meltdown...he said we missed 13 shots in a row in the 4th qtr and I personally missed 6 or 7...that's on me.

 

Oh, God. That fourth quarter will haunt me forever. Portland should have won its second title that year.

 

Jeez. I can't even remember that final game well. Have it blacked out basically. Probably from years of denial. Ha ha! Funny, I can remember the final 92 series game like it was yesterday.

 

I honestly feel tortured thinking about it, not sure I can watch them talk about it...

 

Portland should have won its third title that year. 1991 was an even more crushing defeat, time has just helped to cover it over.

 

Sheed could have had 3 rings if he led that team to victory and if he didn't leave Robert Horry wide open that time.

He was probably the most talented bigman of his generation, it's a shame that he didn't have the right mindset and the focus to become elite.

 

I loved Sheed, but he was never more talented than Duncan or KG. It wasn't just mindset--he flat out didn't have the same defense or rebounding instincts those guys had.

I really enjoyed the interview. Couple of really great guys.

Portland did a lot of things right, and you can pick at that horrible 4th quarter, but eh, I think after all these years it doesn't hurt as much anymore.

 

As much as the middle year '91 defeat versus a much lesser Laker team hurt, that loss to the Lakers in the 2000 WCF was, by far, my most agonizing defeat as a fan of this franchise. I was literally in tears of rage, and broke the lazy boy foot rest in half with a back kick. Will never forget that loss. They had it. They had the Lakers in so much trouble, and then it ALL FELL APART.

 

KG had to practice like a million years before he had a decent shot and Duncan shots were repetitive,robotic shots from the same spots everytime, Rasheed was a natural imo. His movement and shooting were so fluent and smooth compared to those guys.

Sheed was a very good one-on-one defender if my memory serves me right. I'd give rebounding and blocking\timing to TD and KG, but i still think those guys had better careers because they were such hard workers and exemplary professional competitors.

 

Character matters.

 

It doesn't. I would take that team in a fucking heartbeat. I don't care how many times those guys got arrested.

With that said, if you put Dame on that team we win the championship. Not because of character, but because he's clutch. He has that Jordan gene. We lacked that on that team.

 

You would take that team in a heartbeat? You want to lose in Game 7 of WCF again?? And it wasn't about arrests. We were a team that lost our cool in big games and imploded. Everyones technicals back then really held us back. Heck, Sheed got ejected in Game 1 iirc. I don't miss that stuff. I'm glad we just keep playing, keep working hard.

 

Yes. I would take a team that was 15 minutes from going to the Finals and most likely winning a championship over a team that has made it out of the first round one time in the past.... what.... five years?

 

1991...we lost to the team that got swept by the bulls...who also beat us the following year.

 

The Bulls weren't the established team to beat in '91. (We have a habit of facing defending champs.) A year later, they had that championship mojo. Our loss to the Lakers in the Conference Finals was a major letdown, which hints at why many believe we would have given the Bulls a much stiffer challenge, if not been the outright favorites.

 

yeah...I've never forgiven Adelman for that loss to the Lakers

I was really into that team and I remember losing my shit almost all season because Adelman had some loopy strict platoon system with his rotation. Finally, after 5 losses in 6 games when the 2nd unit kept blowing leads and looking like crap, Adelman ditched the platoon system and went with a much more integrated rotation. The result was Portland finished with a 17-3 run that included a 16 game win-streak and pushed them to 63 wins

and Adelman stayed with that new rotation thru the first 2 playoff series when the Blazers went 8-3.

But then, in game 1 of the WC finals against the Lakers, after the Blazers ended the 3rd Q with a 12 point lead, idiot Rick went back to the platoon, started the 4th Q with all 2nd unit guys, and the Blazers got outscored by 17 in the Q after the Lakers built momentum against the bench. That was the series, even though only game 1. Cliff Robinson's fumble at the basket in game 6 was just icing on the shitcake

 

I don't remember all that as vividly as you, but maybe subconsciously, that's why I've always hated platoon substitution patterns.

 

It does. Pippen and especially Wallace didn't have enough character to hold themselves or the team together when the shit started to hit the fan. They folded like lawn chairs.