*January 30th- Andre Miller scores 52 points in Dallas. This was the most WTF moment in the history of my 20 years following the Blazers. I never saw this coming. When you turned on the TV, did it even cross your mind that Miller could score 52, would score 52, or would even TRY to score 52 that night? This one took me by complete surprise. The most baffling score was the running hook shot in the lane for his 44th and 45th points. What the heck was that? Never saw him do that before. Never seen him do that since. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xPNnG7pE4 * March 7th- Andre Miller dunks in Denver. This was another WTF moment. The guy never dunks. Then, all of the sudden, in a tough game in Denver on national TV, he skies like MJ! Where the hell did this come from? Why didn't we see it before? Why haven't we seen it since? Amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w3Qe5ztfOs * April 11th- Roy goes down but the Blazers beat the Lakers at Staples. This was the beginning of the end for Roy but it's always a highlight for me when we beat the Lakers and when we do it in Los Angeles, it's heaven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGuz3kCyqY&feature=fvst * April 12th- Rose Garden crowd chants MARCUS CAMBY! MARCUS CAMBY! Marcus Camby scores 30 points and grabs down 13 rebounds in a victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Rose Garden crowd erupts into a spontaneous chant of his name. Sadly, Camby's not had a game like that since, but I guess that's what makes it so special? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt3p2Q9khaY * April 18th- Blazers beat Suns in Game 1 of playoffs. We almost choked this game away at the end but it didn't matter. When all was said and done, we had a 1-0 lead in a playoff series. It was the first time that we led in a playoff series since the second round series against Utah in 2000. We had played 26 straight playoff games without taking a series lead. It felt so good to be on top for a night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oA3H0wllTM * April 24th- Roy returns. Blazers tie series 2-2. Obviously, in retrospect, it was a stupid idea, but Roy came back 8 days after knee surgery and made a significant contribution to help the Blazers tie the series after being destroyed in Games 2 & 3. It made me believe we could win the series enough to slap down $350 for a ticket and drive 6 hours to Phoenix to see Game 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmB7fpJ-4PY * October 26th, 27th, & 30th- Three up. Three down. First, we beat our most recent playoff foe, the Phoenix Suns. Then, we beat the Clippers in Blake Griffin's rookie debut. And then, we beat the Knicks in Amare Stoudemire's NY home debut. And we did it by dominating the ends of all three games. In the final 5:35 of all three games, the Blazers outscored their opponents by a combined score of 49 to 12. And at the end of it all, we were all alone at the top of the standings, the first team in the NBA to reach 3-0 this season. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoXIpnp_uBc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frHxVnErC-8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As36V6fNO5M *December 17th- LaMarcus Aldridge dunks on Michael Beasley Rudy to LaMarcus. The dunk says it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSellFxfs0 *December 20th- Blazers 106, Bucks 80 Finally. A long awaited blowout. And I was there! It had everything: a 29/19 night out of Aldridge, a 17/7 night out of Rudy, 2 blocks from Marks (24 minutes!), 6 points from Babbitt (18 minutes!), and 8 pairs of three goggles. Camby sat this one out and Cunningham got hurt and yet Bogut was a non factor for the Bucks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBsnlUVhAEQ *December 27th- Blazers win in Utah. This was extra special for me. I got stuck in Salt Lake City for two nights because of a blizzard in NY. By a total coincidence, my favorite team was in town. Going into this game, the Blazers had only won 14 regular season games in Utah EVER. I sat in the 17th row center and watched us get our 15th! We went to Aldridge on almost every single possession in the 4th and he completely dominated the Jazz. For this current season, that made the Blazers 5-1 with me in the building (6 different buildings!) Wins- Clippers, Knicks, Suns, Bucks, Jazz. Loss- Spurs (you can't have everything.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k9mCAG3nmE
Great stuff. Just a shame there were so many Top 10 (Not So -- and even more) Greatest Moments this year. I'll add in old man Juwan's dunk over Kaman as an honorable mention. [video=youtube;HTkOqDgLb6s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTkOqDgLb6s&feature=related[/video]
The Top 10 of 2010 should be totally from the 2009-10 season. This season there has been nothing comparable. Before making such a list, make a list of the exact day we learned of each injury or game someone would miss. Then check how many hours McMillan had to prepare before the next game. There were quite a few times last season that he had only hours to figure out how to play the next game without some player. Yet we usually won the emergency game in heroic fashion. There were many crises like that filled with suspense, followed by joyful results. Every one of them should be on the Top 10 list. Juwan Howard was a consistent hero. We discarded him like garbage.
I agree. I also believe we could've made the playoffs without the Camby trade. We were winning games with Howard at C and Outlaw would've been a nice punch off the bench down the stretch. Of course, now knowing that we had to go a whole other year without Oden, I'm glad we got Camby.
I was agreeing that Howard was a hero, by the way. Not that we discarded him like garbage. We didn't discard him. He just left on his own, right? Plus, with Camby, Oden, Joel, and Pendergraph all finally healthy (so we thought), we really didn't have room for him on the roster.
Of COURSE we were going to make the playoffs even before Camby came. It was an exhilarating, miracle season. I'm glad we got Camby, and I wish we'd also kept Howard as insurance, in case Oden or Przybilla or Pendergraph or Roy or someone went down. But how could that happen? Howard said over and over during the season that he'd love to stay here. He was delighted to play major minutes for the first time in years. Blazer management wouldn't talk to Howard or his agent about staying (it was covered in the Oregonian blogs and mentioned on this board every time). So a couple of months after the end of the season he signed with Miami. He wanted to stay here. As for not having a roster opening, a 15-man team usually has 3 centers, 6 forwards, and 6 guards. Even before injuries this Fall, we had too many guards and too few forwards. We had and have a roster opening. Comparing him to our other forwards, Juwan is much better than Pendergraph and Cunningham (and of course Marks, Babbitt, and Johnson).
(In my previous post, I meant to say Williams instead of Johnson.) Here's our horribly imbalanced roster. Each position should have 3 players. You don't see a roster opening for F/C Juwan Howard? C Camby Marks / Oberto / Pendergraph Przybilla Oden PF Aldridge Cunningham (who would be a SF if we had a real sub PF) SF Batum Babbitt SG Roy Matthews Fernandez Williams, Elliott PG Miller Johnson, Armon Mills If we'd kept Howard, Mills wouldn't have made the team, and everyone would have slid down to his natural position. The roster was looking even more horribly imbalanced when Bayless was on it. That's why they got rid of him for a mere pick--to decrease the guards. Even before we got Matthews, we had too many guards. But we never had an overabundance of what Howard could do, just young wannabes like Pendergraph or Cunningham.
