I actually enjoyed doing the "Most Disappointing Blazers Acquisitions" list and it seemed to keep us occupied just fine conversationally so we're going to start a new one. It won't be the "Most Pleasantly Surprising Players" list that I had originally planned because I want to get away from individual players for a while, but it will be pleasant. Stay tuned to find out.
Since such lists take a fair amount of thought and planning and because I don't want to start one on a Friday, I want to open up an ancillary topic brought up by the previous list. Today is your day to share, speculate on, and argue about who is the most disappointing Blazer player ever. Notice we said "player" and not "acquisition". The standards of the previous list don't apply. You can use any reasoning you wish. It can be a great guy who didn't meet expectations, it can be a guy you thought would be good who fell short. Disappointment can stem from on-court performance or it can be a guy you thought had character issues that sabotaged your ability to root for him and the team. Any reasoning is fair as long as you explain it.
I'll start. After much consideration (and a few hard choices) I'm going to go with my gut and say Isaiah Rider. It's not because he fell short of basketball expectations or hype. I knew going in that he was going to be a serious gamble since he was pretty much the poster boy for headcases in his era. He also put up some nice numbers for the team. But his amazing ability to quit on a game, standing around doing nothing resembling basketball, alternating between ignoring his teammates and ignoring the ball...he drove me crazy. His continued headcase-ness and off-court troubles made him impossible to get behind. Plus I was used to seeing Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, and Jerome Kersey out there...maybe not perfect players but certainly hard workers and winners. Going from that era into Rider-land was an awful shock.
He might not be the most disappointing Blazer of all time in abstract terms but for me personally J.R. Rider--the least-valuable 20ppg scorer ever--will always be example #1 of things going south with the Blazers.
Who's your guy? Share below.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)