Lookback at Lakers/Blazers WCS in 2000

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UKRAINEFAN said:
Painful to read but a lot of good stuff on how Lakers really respected that Blazers team. Also more information on why Jermaine got traded. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...e-truth-about-the-lob-that-launched-a-dynasty
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Brian Shaw, Lakers guard: The one area that we couldn't really defend against them was Rasheed Wallace. And even in that game, in Game 7, he was killing us. Until at one point, they just stopped going to him, and they started shooting a bunch of threes. (although he misses a couple jumpers later, not sure what % he shot in the fourth?)
 
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Dunleavy: If you go plus-minus, when [Sabonis] was on the floor, we beat them—that year when he's on the floor, we beat them. And that was the killer for us, is once we lost him. (fouled out)
 
Wells: We missed 13 shots in a row. If we hit three to five of them shots—as a matter of fact, two to three of them—it's a whole 'nother thing. Just the basketball gods chose us to make us miss 13 shots in a row after we'd played flawless basketball.

Pippen: They weren't shots that we should have been taking. When you're on the road, you gotta play smart: You gotta go to the basket—you gotta get to the foul line. We weren't mature enough.
 
Here's the part on Jermaine:
Dunleavy: I didn't want to trade Brian Grant or Jermaine O'Neal. And Bob Whitsitt came to me and said he's got this deal. I'm like, "What are you, nuts? We can't do that. These two guys are energy players, and we just took these guys to seven games."

Whitsitt: When Jermaine was a free agent, I was able to get him to re-sign. And I did make a commitment that if he didn't get a fair shake … I'd try to move [him] somewhere where [he] could get some playing time.

Dunleavy: I have Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant—three guys that are right there, as far as All-Stars in this league. And I'm expected to win every single game.


Whitsitt: For whatever reason, Mike did not like Jermaine and just didn't want to play him, didn't want to develop him. He had some personality issues with him.

Pippen: At some point, I saw where he broke Jermaine's spirit.


Dunleavy: Jermaine is under contract for us for another four years. In two years, Arvydas will probably be gone. He'll be playing 40 minutes a night.

Whitsitt: I would have much preferred to keep Brian Grant over Shawn Kemp, no question about that. But there was money involved. And it's not my money.

Dunleavy: You gotta keep this group together for two or three years. You got to give them a chance.

Whitsitt: Maybe if we kept everything exactly the same, we would have won [the championship] the next year. But you can't always keep it exactly the same.
 
Not sure I take Whitsitts word with anything more than a grain of salt. Also not sure how I feel about Dunleavy either.
 
julius said:
Not sure I take Whitsitts word with anything more than a grain of salt. Also not sure how I feel about Dunleavy either.
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I think if we kept everything the same and got rid of Dunleavy, things could have been different. Dunleavy was a solid B of a coach. Imagine that team with even Adelman.
 
julius said:
Not sure I take Whitsitts word with anything more than a grain of salt. Also not sure how I feel about Dunleavy either.
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Yeh, it sounds like both trying to cover their asses; kind of blame it on the other guy.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
This is like revisiting childhood trauma. Why? Why do it?
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Right! I looked like the actor Tony Burton (Apollo's trainer) in Rocky 4, when Apollo goes down vs. Drago. I actually did a back kick into my lazy boy and broke the footrest part in half.
 
Brian Grant is my 2nd all-time fav Blazer - and I was still happy to see him go. He signed an obscenely large contract with Miami - I knew they would regret it, and they did.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
Here's the part on Jermaine:
Dunleavy: I didn't want to trade Brian Grant or Jermaine O'Neal. And Bob Whitsitt came to me and said he's got this deal. I'm like, "What are you, nuts? We can't do that. These two guys are energy players, and we just took these guys to seven games."

Whitsitt: When Jermaine was a free agent, I was able to get him to re-sign. And I did make a commitment that if he didn't get a fair shake … I'd try to move [him] somewhere where [he] could get some playing time.

Dunleavy: I have Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant—three guys that are right there, as far as All-Stars in this league. And I'm expected to win every single game.


Whitsitt: For whatever reason, Mike did not like Jermaine and just didn't want to play him, didn't want to develop him. He had some personality issues with him.

Pippen: At some point, I saw where he broke Jermaine's spirit.


Dunleavy: Jermaine is under contract for us for another four years. In two years, Arvydas will probably be gone. He'll be playing 40 minutes a night.

Whitsitt: I would have much preferred to keep Brian Grant over Shawn Kemp, no question about that. But there was money involved. And it's not my money.

Dunleavy: You gotta keep this group together for two or three years. You got to give them a chance.

Whitsitt: Maybe if we kept everything exactly the same, we would have won [the championship] the next year. But you can't always keep it exactly the same.
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Whitsitt was a tradaholic. He couldn't help himself. Like a kid in a candy factory. I am sure Allen would have been ok keeping Grant and O'Neal if he was told the Blazers who have a better chance at winning the championship keeping the team together. Instead Whisitt traded gold for lead in a bloated over the hill coked out Kemp and old Dale Davis.
 
I would love to get this in coffee table book form with pictures!
 
Dale Davis for Jermaine O'Neal, nice GM move. I don't care what people say, nothing Neil has done even comes close to that one in the stupidity category. Not the bloated contracts, not Barton for Afflalo. Damn! that was a dumb move by Whitsitt.
 
Even though Clyde was on in years, Drexler for over the hill Otis Thorpe was bad too.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
Wells: We missed 13 shots in a row. If we hit three to five of them shots—as a matter of fact, two to three of them—it's a whole 'nother thing. Just the basketball gods chose us to make us miss 13 shots in a row after we'd played flawless basketball.

Pippen: They weren't shots that we should have been taking. When you're on the road, you gotta play smart: You gotta go to the basket—you gotta get to the foul line. We weren't mature enough.
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Why didn't Pippen take it to the basket; he was sure mature enough by then.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
Why didn't Pippen take it to the basket; he was sure mature enough by then.
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He had an injured hand at that point--I wouldn't have wanted him trying to take the offensive load considering that. He was making a difference on defense and passing the ball.
 
Definitely a talented team, but more so in depth than top end talent imo. Sheed was the best player in that series for large stretches, but he wasn't really the type to get you 15 points in the 4th quarter of game 7 or that you could force feed over and over to end games. Pippen, Sabonis, and Smith had the right make-up, but they were beginning to succumb to injuries. Looking back, I think 2000 was our one-off year. Perfect blend of cagey vets, guys entering their prime, and some tantalizing, raw youth. Unfortunately, Whitsitt jettisoned two vital young bigs for more wrong side aging vets and the balance was lost. Damn. Fun team though. Maddening at times, but fun.
 
Davis was decent and Kemp was OK the next year.

The team was rolling and looked like they'd be back in the WCF again. Dunleavy got all those difficult personalities to sacrifice playing time again.

Then trader Bob signs Rod Strickland and the team failed, never to recover.
 
tykendo said:
Even though Clyde was on in years, Drexler for over the hill Otis Thorpe was bad too.
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Clyde wanted to be moved at that point, which even hurts more since they F'n won. Otis then became Childress...oh the joy of memory lane, lol. SMH!
 
With me not working for the last 88 days, I think the Mrs. is starting miss some of you guys to be honest.
 
UKRAINEFAN said:
More from this time. I think I would take West word on this over Whitsitt.
"Whitsitt: The Lakers were trying to get Pippen, and Pippen wanted to get to the Lakers. I got in the middle and fucked it up for the Lakers. … Had they got Pippen, we wouldn’t be talking about a Game 7. They would have won 70 games. West: There wasn’t one conversation in my mind about him."
– via Jason Quick and Bill Oram @ The Athletic
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At the time, I remember reading that West and Jackson wanted Pippen, as did Kobe Bryant (I remember him saying he wanted to recreate the "Doberman defense" that Jordan and Pippen spearheaded in Chicago). But Jerry Buss didn't want to spend the money that Pippen cost, so he nixed it.
 
What killed us was losing Game 3 (and 4 for that matter) at home. After clocking them in Game 2, we should’ve won the series in 5 or 6.
 
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