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Steve Kerr Honors Terry Porter


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Last week I was all set to post the latest installment of Honor Terry Porter when someone had to go and get injured and then go and get surgery.  I won't name names here, but it threw my whole swag off. I was unswagged. Deswagged? Swagless.

In any event, Sean at Oregonlive had some audio from a recent episode from 95.5's "Wheels after Work" in which Brian Wheeler and Kenny Vance interview Phoenix Suns General Manager Steve Kerr.  Sure they talked about Darius and some other shiny subjects but the question and answer that jumped out to me was, of course, Kenny's question about the Terry Porter hiring.

Back in May when I constructed my Jersey Retirement Formula, I came up with 5 categories for judging a player's worth to an organization.  The fifth category, let me remind you, was about "The Intangibles."

This section takes into account the player's personality, contributions to the community and investment in the organization.

Ask yourself, "Is the player a credit to the organization, the city and the league?"

To me, and to many of you, this is where TP30 really hits a home run.  But don't take my word for it, here's what Steve Kerr had to say about his new coach...

"Well I know that people who followed Terry in Portland over the years know exactly why I picked him as our coach. 

He's just an incredibly class human being, first of all.  A great guy.

Somebody who I was teammates with in San Antonio for two seasons.  So I got to know Terry very well. 

Once everything went down with Mike D'Antoni, and my search began, Terry was the first guy on my list just because of his experience in basketball and the type of person he is. How smart he is. What kind of leader he is. 

I felt like we got the best man for the job.  I really liked the fact that he had a couple of years as a head coach in Milwaukee for experience purposes.

You ask around the league about Terry and everybody raves about him.  He's just the kind of person I want on my team. And I'm excited to have him."

Back in May, I only awarded Terry 3 out of 5 points in this category.  After listening to Steve's sweet talk, I think we can safely bump that up at least one notch. 

By all accounts (including Wheeler's), Kerr himself is one of the league's class acts so it's hard to imagine a more authoritative answer to the posed question, "Is he a credit to the organization, the city and the league?"

You might be thinking, "What did you expect Steve to say? He hired Terry after all, of course he's going to say he's a great guy."  Yeah, I get that.  But get this: Steve Kerr hired him.  The D'Antoni situation was messy; Steve was looking for reliability; and to whom did he look first?  TP30.

KP does not have a monopoly on emphasizing character when it comes to building a quality organization.  Aging roster or not, I know Terry will be teaching and leading the way, with class, all season long.  To a man like Kerr, that is worth its weight in gold.

Steve said, "he's just the kind of person I want on my team.  I say, "Terry is just the kind of person whose jersey should be hanging from the Rose Garden rafters."

Blazers management: let's get 'er done.

-- Ben (benjamin.golliver@gmail.com)

PS Word is that Mr. Wheeler's surgery this morning was a success.  Again, our thoughts go out to Mr. Wheeler and we wish him a speedy recovery.

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Terry Porter

So many times it was Terry Porter’s drive and courage that carried the team. So many times his incredible drives and outside shots broke the back of the opponent. So many times, Terry Porter exemplified what it means to be a great basketball player, a solid and real human being, and a winning Portland Trailblazer. Retiring his jersey is small repayment for what he gave Portland, and I hope it soon gives him the same thrill his play gave to all of us.

If you say "basically" at the beginning of a sentence, you probably also put ketchup on everything you eat.

by CosmoPlavix on Aug 18, 2008 7:16 PM PDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

That's a great endorsement for Terry, and pretty consistent with what Kerr said when he hired him
“He’s got a great combination of leadership skills,” Kerr said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “He’s a great communicator. And his coaching experience, two years as a head coach, is important to me. The fact that he’s sat in that chair, that was a key factor. He’s very tough-minded.”

Other candidates reportedly included Houston Rockets assistant Elston Turner, Utah Jazz assistant Tyrone Corbin and former NBA player and current TV analyst Mark Jackson. I think I also heard rumors about Tom Thibodeau from Boston, but I’m not sure that was for the Phoenix job. On that list it’s entirely possible Porter really was on top since he had a solid resume from Milwaukee (head coach, playoff appearance) and Detroit (assistant), plus Phoenix also wanted to improve the defensive game. And Kerr is a class act by all accounts.

We might want to keep in mind though that this is the same Kerr who put his own career on the line by trading Marion for Shaq and thus effectively making the Suns’ championship window really small for Terry and ending the “seven seconds or less” era.

If it works, I’m a genius; if it doesn’t I’m a moron, I guess".

Odenied: Asked whether he noticed Oden favoring his right knee, Frye dismissed it entirely. "He favors dunking on your head, that's what he favors."

by Norsktroll on Aug 18, 2008 7:34 PM PDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Not Retiring Terry Porter's Jersey on the evening of November 1, 2008 would be Shameful

Blazer Management absolutely must get this done and it should be announced soon. It should not require any more thinking about it on anyone else’s part this should already have been announced as a done deal.

What is taking so long? What is the waiting for? Time’s a-wastin’ dang it! Call the press conference! Let’s do this thing!

Yes, I am very impatient, but let’s face it. This is a no-brainer!

LMA>LA!
LMA's reign as "LaMonster of the Low Post" has just begun!

by LaMarvelous on Aug 18, 2008 7:58 PM PDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Solidly behind you Ben

And I have always respected Steve Kerr as a player and person. However as a competitor of KP, I think you reached. Can you really imagine KP trading for Shaq? Maybe I am seeing Shaq all wrong. Maybe he didn’t really just do that video on his former teammate and his taste sensations (which did cause me to laugh). Just saying….

Now Terry Porter would still be 10 marks for Kerr against 1 minus mark for Shaq. Bring on the Phoenix game and TP!

Aldridge said. "We feel like we can beat any team. We feel like we can beat the Spurs, Suns, Lakers, Mavericks, whoever any night right now, and we'll still be here when those teams get old and their guys retire. We're going to be here for a long time."

by lee3022 on Aug 18, 2008 11:36 PM PDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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