from http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/Trail_Blazers_To_Retire_30_-288936-1218.html Terry Porter's number will be retired on Dec. 16th against Sacramento, and Bobby Gross's on Dec. 18th vs. Phoenix. I'm liking this decision by the organization. If anyone outside of Walton and Lucas was responsible for the Blazers beating the 76ers in the 77 finals, it was Gross. He played out of his mind on both sides of the court, both trying to guard Dr. J and trying to match his scoring. I think this makes a clean sweep of the major players in the 1977 team to have their numbers retired (although personally I would trade Twardzick for Johnny Davis): Retired Uniform Numbers: (1) Larry Weinberg (13) David Twardzik (15) Larry Steele (20) Maurice Lucas (30) Bobby Gross (32) Bill Walton (36) Lloyd Neal (77) Jack Ramsay
ugh,too many players retired who shouldn't be! I agree with Porter though, but Gross? Was he really an All-Star?
Yeah I agree there are players there that shouldn't have their number retired. They should be honored for the championship but they shouldn't be singled out with their number. When I think of numbers that should be retired... it's Walton, Clyde, Porter and probably Lucas. Then you have Weinberg and Ramsay. Twardzik? Steele? Neal? I wasn't around then, but I've heard a lot about them. Good players but certainly not jersey retiring worthy IMO.
Gross but not Sheed? WTF? Yeah, Portland has the most pathetic list of retired numbers in all of professional sports. Lame.
Way too many retired numbers. And sharing a number's retirement is just silly. If Gross wasn't good enough to have his number retired when Porter (or Rasheed, who was arguably better than either of them) wore the number, why is it good enough now? They should have a "Garden of Honor" where Blazer greats (or at least "very goods") are given props without having their numbers retired, and ONLY HoF-level players should get numbers retired, IMO. Ed O.
Frankly, Portland treats this a bit differently then most teams. They retire the numbers of players the entire fan base loved, regardless of statistics. Portland is just a different kind of place, and that's all there is to it.
Gross deserves it big time. Porter, not as much. I wouldn't retire anyone's number if they didn't win a title here. There are awesomely good players, and then there are Champions, and there's a huge gap between them.
I don't think they deserved to have them retired, but I'm not losing any sleep over it. Accolades and other people's opinions are meaningless.
Also, let's be honest, in any other NBA city, would the death of Kevin Duckworth have gotten as much outpouring of public support and the Blazers to respond by having their team wear a patch in his honor for the whole season? He was a role player, a two-time All-Star. It's like the Indiana Pacers honoring Rik Smits in that manner if he passed away, or the Houston Rockets honoring Ralph Sampson. It wouldn't happen. Portland is different (for the better, IMO), in that winning and losing isn't as important as the connection between the player and the community. That's why the JailBlazers failed so utterly, because Bob Whitsitt and Steve Patterson didn't understand the relationship between the team and the city. They thought it was about Wins and Losses.
I feel good for Terry getting the honor. Getting tix to that game might be worth it. http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2008/11/blazers_rewind.html
