Exclusive The ultimate Fans Ask the Questions, one of the Blazer founders, Harry Glickman!

Excellent question Lee
RC.

Just a heads up.
Many WWll veterans do not like to talk about their experieces. Do not be offended if you do not get an answer.

SPD, be gentle on this topic. Do not push him if it is a subject he wants to keep private.

 

I don't need you to ask him anything Sly, but you could tell him, "thank you" for me.

I was so stoked to have and NBA team in town! Not only did I go to the very first game, I went to their first practice in the L&C Gym. Got the contract to maintain the Scoreboard there so I could have the excuse to be in the facility. Ha! Oh well that's way it was. Some of the guys I worked with and I, got a block of seats in the old Coliseum, so there were more than me stoked about the Blazers.

I remember an astonishing thing about that first exhibition game, it was against the Lakers. The Lakers was my favorite NBA team at that time. When the game got underway is when the astonishing thing took hold. It did not take long before you could feel the Laker leaving, it was like the Lake was draining right there, as my young Blazers began to push them right out of my heart.

 

Before you landed an NBA franchise for Portland, you negotiated to have an ABA team here. How close did that come to happening? Are you glad it didn’t?

 

Ha, got you beat as every Wednesday at noon, Stu Inman, Wally Scales, Neil Johnston and a couple others from Blazer management would come over and play basketball with some of the faculty as well as a few of us students at U of P. None of them ever mentioned the AM metadata though

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It's such an awesome story. 7 years later the city had its first Basketball Championship.

Fate had it... But we are destined to win again!

 

Compare David Stern with Larry O'Brien, a top lawyer who got the NBA through the ABA merger without the expected problems. Compare being an owner in the 1970s to now. Do the same for GM, your job. Describe the effects of the 1970s' smaller NBA team staffs: Typically, the majority owner was team President, the minority owner was GM, and there was one Assistant Coach.

Workout/supplements/injury technology has improved. There are more big man tall players. But has average NBA quickness, speed, or dexterity improved?
...Human evolution moves over hundreds of thousands of years, but an expanding sample set of humans might accomplish such an NBA physiological change (e.g. a bigger percentage of American boys learning the game, or more groups included, as in my next question).

The NBA had 2 great immigrations: Blacks in the 60s, and Europeans in the 2000 decade. Each changed the dominant paradigm of playing style and rules (or at least the league-mandated referees' interpretations of the rules). Discuss those changes. Was Stern right when he compromised with the European style to universalize the game, which produced the new Stotts style now taking over the league?

Discuss the history of all the teams imitating the dominant paradigm to survive the era...from the 50s high-scoring big men, to the 60s Celtics-inspired defensive center, the 70s-80s Wooden style which took over coaches' thinking in the Jabbar/Walton heyday, Chuck Daly's dirty defense which took the league by storm in the late 80s, Phil Jackson's dominant wing in the Jordan/Drexler years which coaches copied, and now the new Euro style catching on.

To end with a little humor...Who was tougher on his players, Bill Fitch or Dick Motta? Why aren't any coaches SOBs anymore?

 

I hope sly uses this as a question.

 

Where is your raincoat now? Are you aware your raincoat has an S2 account?

 

Who's your Top 3 Blazer players of all time?

 

Had Petrie not been available who would have been the very first Blazer (of the players still available)? I ask knowing that we surprised most everyone for drafting him that high but you just never know if anyone else might have had him on their radar.

Where does that year’s draft rank all time (ignoring the changes in the game, etc) since then? Asking because to this fan it’s still one of the best drafts in league history......

 

What is he up to, nowadays?

What does he think of the current trajectory of this Portland Trailblazers team and what would he do with it?

Which NBA Commissioner does he think did the best job?

Opinions on MJ vs. Lebron?

The recent Vegas Golden Knights success in the NHL reminds me of Portland suddenly appearing and winning it all a few years after. Does he think a similar situation could happen again in the league?

 

What player or coach did you want the most and were unable to get after trying ..sort of , who slipped through the cracks?

 

Sly repped everyone except mine, which took by far the longest time to think out, structure, and customize for Harry's 1970s era! You could use just some of the pieces and still make a whole interview out of it alone! It glows in its pursuit of controversial opinions! Sly has no clue how to make a name for himself as a reporter!