OT The Bob Whitsitt "Trader Bob" Appreciation Thread

[Fairly-Hard]

I read that as A2M

Whoa there.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I mean, of people who remember the Drexler Blazers AND the Sheed/Pippen Blazers, it's no contest which one they prefer.

The millionth example of someone going way over their skis to project their personal opinion as that of everyone in the fanbase. I rooted for both teams more or less equally as both had an awesome collection of talent, but truth be told I enjoyed watching the Sheed/PIP/Steve Smith/Bonzi/Sabas/Grant teams more as they played beautiful team ball.

Clearly you're not people.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

"Trader Bob" was the last GM that the Blazers have had who had the balls to take risks. He shot for the moon and nearly got there in 2000. His famous quote was "I'm not a chemist" when asked about how the players he gave Mike Dunleavey would fit together. He went out and got the best players he could find and trusted the coaching staff to make the puzzle pieces fit.

Every GM that the Blazers have had since then has been calculated, weak, scared. They either remember or were told the last time the team crashed and burned (2004-2007), they nearly sold the team/defaulted on the RG mortgage/moved to another market. Portland NEEDS the arena to be filled. They NEED the merch sales to be strong. They NEED local TV ratings to be high. Otherwise the talk will start again. And the team is scared shitless of that happening again, so they'll do whatever it takes to keep the on-court product competitive, playoff-good but not championship-good. Play up the "us against the world" mantra to compensate. Celebrate first round series wins like the season was a success. But they'll never take those Trader Bob risks again. And us as Blazer fans have to accept that.

 

[jlprk]

With Bob Whitsitt, our goal was to be elite in the regular season, then try for a championship. (That was the feeling; I'm not saying we always achieved it.)

Subsequently, the 2000s feeling was to get from the .300s to the .400s to maybe even the .500s in the standings. In the 2010s it was to shoot for the playoffs, after great highs and lows during the regular season when for months it appeared we wouldn't make it.

Whitsitt made Blazer fans feel that anything was possible.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

truth be told I enjoyed watching the Sheed/PIP/Steve Smith/Bonzi/Sabas/Grant teams more as they played beautiful team ball. I viewed the whiny Quick/Canzano led Jailblazer as the BS it was fueled by no one on the team giving those Judas's an interview. Reap what you sow, why should anyone talk to lazy sensationalist A-Holes?

https://deadspin.com/portland-wronged-the-jail-blazers-more-than-the-jail-bl-1834341801

(As I said, I love a lot of the "Jail Blazers" - Sheed and Sabonis especially - but my memory is a LOT of isolation plays from Dunleavy. He liked to hunt matchups and exploit them.)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

"Trader Bob" was the last GM that the Blazers have had who had the balls to take risks. He shot for the moon and nearly got there in 2000. His famous quote was "I'm not a chemist" when asked about how the players he gave Mike Dunleavey would fit together. He went out and got the best players he could find and trusted the coaching staff to make the puzzle pieces fit.

Wasn't it "I didn't major in Chemistry?"
Anyway, Whitsitt's approach worked great in parts - getting Sheed, Steve Smith and Pippen were masterstrokes, but getting Damon, Kemp, Dale Davis and re-signing Detlef, among others, not so much. Damon was perhaps his cardinal sin: we were playing great with Alvin Williams as the starter and then he was a throw-in to bring the local boy back. But you can have TOO MANY "stars", and Williams would've been a great complementary player (better size, better defender, more likely to defer to Pippen and let him be the REAL point guard). Plus he couldn't bear to let Brian Grant go for nothing, when really this would've given O'Neal a real shot. (Plus he needed to can Dunleavy sooner - going to a coach that believed in him made Jermaine flourish.)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

In the process of googling, I came across this quiz. 20/20 BAYBEE. To be fair, they're not exactly obscure, most of 'em.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexnaidus/if-you-can-name-these-obscure-basketball-players-you

 

[jlprk]

Wasn't it "I didn't major in Chemistry?"

I thought it was, "I wasn't a chemistry major." That responded to critical articles using the word.