I’ve always liked Damon and will never consider him a jailblazer. Him regularly smoking weed should not give him that title, there’s far worst things in life then getting high off a natural herb.

and a decent ball player, but he was a total moron when it came to interacting responsibly with the law.

It’s fine to have a brick of pot in your crawl space … but don’t let your security alarm ring endlessly, draw the police and have them discover the weed.
It’s fine to want to travel with your stash … but don’t take it on a commercial flight!
It’s fine to wanna get high on I-5 … but don’t speed or drive poorly while doing it!
It’s fine to do illegal things, but don’t get caught!

I liked Damon too, but I much happier to see him go than stay.
The law isn’t moral judgment, it’s often more a measure of responsibility.

He had a problem with drugs, for sure.

But as far as one of the worst criminally, let’s compare Z Bo with Damon.

Remove ALL pot-related incidents and what’s left?

Damon: None that I know of
Z Bo: Car racing, violence, gun charges, allegations of sexual assault…… basically, when was he NOT breaking the law?

So it’s hard for me to see him, on the spectrum, as being anywhere near the end titled “the worst.”

(1) Trying to smuggle ganja onto an airplane through the metal detector WRAPPED IN TINFOIL.

(2) Kept Costco-quadruple-sized mega-brick of pot in the crawlspace under his house.

He made idiotic mistakes of course, but worse to me is never building on his potential and being a whiny baby butt otherwise.

He was an awful, awful player for us and I still have nightmares of that 05-06 season where it was just Damon missing 3-pointers all game. Jesus, I hated that season and he was a big part of it.

Over shot, over dribbled, got way too much slack because he was a ‘local kid’. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but so is Sheed. Damon still was a huge detriment to our team during pretty much his entire stay.

Aside from obvious guys I hate like Ruben, I’d say Damon is our worst Blazer ever who was considered ‘good’. No one thought Ha Seung-Jin was good, so he don’t count. For how much he was paid, how much attention he was given, and how poorly his actual production and off-the-court stupidness, Damon gets “worst Blazer in my lifetime” award.

Can’t stand his game. Maybe if I had some interaction with him I’d feel different, but for now he’s still just a horribly overrated basketballer I can view from afar and hate without worrying about hurting his feelings.

Mortimer

Then we’ll have to hold the same judgement over beloved Bill Walton, who was a ‘blazer’ in more than one sense.

I, like Mortimer, am not a huge fan of Damon more because of his basketball skills (although I will give him points for keeping himself game-ready when he was benched for an extended period instead of sulking as others have).

when did you go to Benson? class of ’00 here.

Good post, I feel similarly about Damon… he was a dummy (tinfoil, etc…) but you got the feeling that he was a good person. Sheed always seemed so mean, and Z-Bo always seemed like Portland wasn’t good enough for him. I feel like Damon liked the fans, liked the community, but just couldn’t ever get things together (“I learned it from watching you, Dad…”).

Damon is the player that got me to turn off the radio and television with this bit of wisdom: “I don’t care what the fans think, I play for myself.”. At that point, I thought: “If he doesn’t care, why should I?”. At that point, the Trailblazers had ceased to be a good way to make small talk anyway.

He may be dumb as a rock, but I have to give him credit for allowing me to take KXL off my radio presets. I really didn’t miss having to hear Lars Larson endorse products for the “I take a wide stance” crowd or hunt for the signal as it drifted away after sunset.

There’s just something about being so high that you try to board a plane with weed wrapped in tin-foil that makes me laugh.

Mighty Mouse Good For a Laugh

by Steve Weinman on Oct 25, 2008 10:30 PM PDT

There’s something about the phrase “Coach Stoudamire” that doesn’t ring true to me. Damon doesn’t see it that way.

As reported by the Tuscon Citizen’s Steve Rivera:

Former Arizona All-American Damon Stoudamire says he would “love to be part of” the Wildcats’ coaching staff this season or next.

“They know I’d work hard because that’s who I am,” Stoudamire said in a phone interview. "I know the game. I think it would be a dream situation to go back to my alma mater and help out. I think it would be a great opportunity. I know Tucson. I know Arizona.’’

No dispute here that he likely knows the game. But the possibility of him teaching it to others while managing to behave himself seems up for debate.

This is, after all, a former lead member of the Jail Blazers, who has had more than his share of incidents with illegal substances and the law. The guy has never carried a great rep as far as being a locker room guy is concerned, and even his on-court decision-making wasn’t always stellar either. Coaching youngsters really seems like a stretch of an employment line for him.