On Retired Numbers.....

Porter & Buck are borderline. Duck & Kersey are loved, but not good enough players.

I can see the argument to retire Terry Porter’s #, but not for Bobby Gross. Retiring #30 for Bobby Gross would be like retiring Steve Blake’s Jersey just because he was on a championship team. Oh wait, first we wait 31 years after he’s on a championship team, and let a couple other players wear the jersey first, then we retire the jersey for Steve Blake. Don’t take this as a knock on Steve Blake, or on Bobby Gross. But we can love them without retireing their jersey.

PLEASE!

The Rasta Monsta! He was a fan favorite. (I’m joking about the retire, but I really did like him.)

I didn’t even look up at them on opening night. As long as they leave 15 numbers for the active roster, they can retire the rest in my mind.

If we could find away to honor our guys without taking all the numbers away from the guys who actually want to wear them would be great. The only number that should be retired is 22. The rest of the numbers arn’t going to be remembered if someone is wearing them because who actually remembers their actual jersey numbers? Just put our super studs in the rafters and that would included Buck and Terry and Kersey. As sorry as I am about Duck passing he has no place in the rafters.

Don’t get me wrong I love me some Twardzic and Hollins and Lucas and all. I was ten when we won it all. Blazer Fan ever since and forever.

It seems funny to me that some people do feel so passionately about the idea of a number being retired and how much that should or should not mean. Looking at that list I think it is clearly evident that The Blazers as a franchise went a little overboard during different periods on the whole “retire” the number thing. As already stated though, I think that has more to do with what has mostly been a great connection between the fans and the franchise. Yes, most teams probably wouldn’t retire a Steele or a Twardzik. However, most teams aren’t The Blazers. The 76 Blazers have become a sepia toned legend, so almost everyone involved directly has been retired. The early 90’s Blazers also were greatly loved by the fans. So The Blazers retired numbers. Maybe too many.

What are your standards for retirement? If you reserve them for the highest of accomplishment and define that as World Championships then perhaps only Walton and Lucas should really be retired numbers. If you count quality and Conference/Division titles then I guess you add Drexler and Porter. In my opinion Walton, Lucas and Drexler are the 3 greatest Blazer players in Blazer history. I think I’d easily have their numbers retired. After that the discussion can become heated and ugly. This franchise is so beloved what do you do? It’s too late and would be awkward, impossible to “unretire” numbers. Perhaps what this franchise should of done was reserve the Jersey Number retirements a little more but as others have suggested created a different honor for all the other greatly beloved Blazers. A wall of Fame, A circle of honor, whatever. But it’s too late now.

As far as my personal opinion about Porter? Yes, I think I’d retire his number. The 90’s Blazers were a great team and Porter in his prime was one of the best PG’s in the league. I remember Gross, but I was just a kid, so I excuse myself from any debate about Bobby Gross, even though I recently watched a replay of The Blazers vs. 76er’s Championship winning game and was impressed with Bobby Grosses performance. In anycase, I think sure retire Porter, Gross, but now going forward perhaps create a different “honor” or we are going to run out of numbers and re-awaken the debate every decade or so.

there are a mix there.. we aren’t the only team with too many guys on the list.. some of these franchises do not even have a championship run..

1) Franchise player on a championship run/dynasty
2) Franchise player for an extended period of time

I think Walton, Luke, Drexler, Porter have the basic qualifications here.. esp. if you extend the term championship dynasty to include repeated extended playoff runs. In fact, some teams might not have even included Walton/Luke because they were really not on the team very long. They caught lightening in a bottle, but were only moderately successful before/after that.

Because we are such a city of blazer homers.. we should have other ways of commemorating the role players during those two eras of Blazer basketball. Part of it involves keeping the alums coming back to the rose garden for special events. Continue to utilize them as ambassadors. Besides that.. there should just be other types of displays.. blazer jersey with all of the numbers of the players on the team.. stuff like that.. Kersey would probably be next but I think its probably time to set boundaries for moving forward..

Anything that’s been written about Terry Porter, change the name to “Buck Williams” and change “assists” to “rebounds” and it’s still true.

Porter and Drexler were great, but wouldn’t have won without a great frontcourt. Do all five.

(And do it now, before anyone notices GO is wearing #52.)

However I would be just as happy if it were just their names that were retired kind of like football. Put their numbers up there with them but allow future players to use them too.
It’s meant to be up their as a remembrance of the great all time Blazers. And that’s what this does.
(I just got done taking a big midterm, so if this looks like a big jumble of words, I apologize)

Didn’t know about Petrie, Neal and Gross? They on the 77 champs? Only 3 names that don’t ring bells with me, and I didn’t know the Blazers had that many retired jerseys.

…………………………………… Here’s a much more correct list: (1) Walton; (2) Lucas; (3) Drexler; (4) Ramsay; (5) Schonley.