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Proviso: This started as a comment on JohnZ's fine fanpost regarding jersey retirement and, well, blew up into a fanpost in of itself. Oh, and it's kinda long, so those of you who come here to not read will be dissatisfied. Please forgive me (though I did give you some pretty pictures a la FreeDarko).
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I have wondered of late whether this whole jersey retirement thing is getting a little out of hand. When I was getting into watching sports as a kid, I considered it to be an honor reserved for absolute cornerstones of the franchise, game-shifters of a seismic scale or something else like a tragic death or local hero.

Now, before y'all get yer undies in a bunch, I'm not saying that Terry Porter's not deserving. Firstly, he seems awesome and secondly I wasn't around when he was being awesome (on the court). No comment there and I have no qualms on that whole subject. However, Ben's last Honor Porter post DID get me thinking about what jersey retirement means these days, and if that is different from what it used to be. I also wondered if it differed from team to team. I also wondered if I was a cold-hearted wrong guy. Let's go with it, though, shall we?

via www.nimblebooks.com

Take Jackie Robinson. To my knowledge, every baseball team retired #42 in honor of his accomplishments and his legacy, and that sits just fine with me. I think that's a good benchmark for league-wide retirement, and I don't think many are against it, regardless. This brings me to the scale of teams. I remember seeing ads regarding Pierce and Garnett's commitment to the Celtics legacy played (ad nauseum) during the playoffs/finals, and one of the topics concerned hanging banners and how, for Boston, a division title isn't good enough, yada yada. This was also after seeing New Orleans hoist up just such a banner somewhere around the same time. "Fine", I thought, "I get what the Celtics are saying, but also let New Orleans have their thing - there aren't many banners up there, anyway". At least, that's what I thought at first.

The more I considered it (and I swear this comes back to retiring jerseys in a second), the more I wondered what happened to the division banners from the early Celtics days. Were they not themselves a budding, young, NOH-like franchise at some point? Did they EVER raise them? Did they take them DOWN at some point? Can you do that with - I told you it'd be back - jerseys? It seems not - that would be like, oh, I don't know, letting your team's savior un-retire from his escape-from-betting-scandal-slash-foray-into-baseball or allowing a star quarterback to return to your team after he's called it quits for the fourth time. It just doesn't happen. But did the less-than-championship Celtics banners happen, really?

via abyss.uoregon.edu

I know that there was a lot of ring-love involved in some of the '77 Blazers' retired numbers, and if we were to have a run as unbelievable as some are expecting, I would assume MANY more would be added (starting five, Outlaw, etc.). I also know that there are literally 101 numbers (1-99, 0 & 00), but would the numbers of the likes of Twardzik, Petrie, Steele & Neal ever go the way of the aforementioned (and perhaps imaginary) Celtics div champs banners? Shouldn't we exercise some caution in the selection, whether we have two retired numbers or twenty?

To me, retired jerseys are for the "oh, well, YEAH" kind of players - Chamberlain, Jordan, Magic, etc. - and for the Blazers that would probably be Walton, Drexler and Porter. To wit, when an outsider thinks of the Blazers, they think of Clyde. When they think of Clyde, they think of the Blazers. Same with, say, Babe Ruth (the Yankees, not the Sox or the Braves). The legends, if you will, who cut a wide and striking swath through the culture of their franchise. Does Buck Williams enter in that category? Kersey? I'm thinking no. These guys are remembered in their own way, but not in a flag-half-mast, life-stops-when-they're-gone kind of way.

via www.ncca.info

Think of it like this: Say you heard that Duckworth's getting a statue built in front of the Coliseum - you'd immediately think "well, I guess they're doing a multi-player retrospective - I wonder who else is getting one". Now say you heard Drexler's getting his Babe or Jordan on at the same spot - you'd probably think "well, that's cool". If I've made my point at all, that's the difference.

So, like I said, Porter's fine with me, but let's not go overboard here. Let's not mortgage our future Blazers numbers on dudes who make us think "I like that guy" instead of "I can't believe he's gone". Let's instead keep our respective upper lips stiff, Portland. Our time will come when the rafters are full and we won't have to have these kinds of debates.

p.s. If you're wondering what the first Google image search result for "retired baller" is, just ask me - I know (hint: his name is Gary Payton). Also, if you've ever wanted to see what a naked woman looks like, do a similar search - except supplant "retired baller" with "famous". Apparently, that's what famous looks like!!