How the Trail Blazers imploded into the Jail Blazers

In 2000, the Portland Pioneers almost made it to the NBA Finals and although they almost sucked, Portland's rise had been quickly intimidating and showed no signs of slowing down in 1999, they made the Western Conference Finals, were swept, but it's okay, they were building something in 2000, it seemed pretty complete. Facing the Kobe Shack Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, this team wasn't going to be swept as coach of the year by Dunleavy in 99 fluid, orchestrated lineups with tons of talent at their disposal, leading scorer Rasheed Wallace was in equal measure. , talented, passionate and volatile under the basket. you had our fetus as an advantage, the big man passing by was 35 years old and could still give Shaq the business.

The backcourt saw 510 points. Point guard Damon Stottemeyer split time with veteran Greg Anthony, new to the team in 2000, they were still star veterans Scottie Pippen. trying to prove he could get a ring without jordan and steve smith, who became the

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second leading scorer off the bench, had fan favorite brian grant and the two youngsters bonzi wells and jermaine o'neal, It was president and general manager bob whitsett who built this group with the help of the finances of owner microsoft co-founder or billionaire paul allen and this group was winning game seven of the 2000 western conference finals by 15 points with 10 minutes and remaining half the finals were in their sights, but then they went on a 15-0 run and won in the fourth quarter the

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missed 13 consecutive shots but they didn't look bad, it was just bad luck dunleavy said he wouldn't change anything about that game because 99 out of 100 times I would win that game Portland's near finals berth in 2000 could have been the first stone on the road to a dominant future if 99 out of 100 times they win that game Hey, they'll get 'em next time , that's math for you Shaq said he expected the rivalry between the blazers and lakers to last his entire career, but, of course, the defeat and failure to reach the finals could be the first stone on a totally different path, one which leads straight to hell, while dunleavy could have said it wouldn't change a thing. about that game seven bob whitsett didn't agree with beating the lakers in o1 wanted to get some players who could protect shaq behind sabonis in a three team deal whitson traded beloved brian grant for sean kemp kemp was more of a wing center than a true center but don't worry, he had a history of handling stellar centers.

The most worrying thing was his recent attitude, the fact that he was quite out of shape and the price of him, but the team funded by the Microsoft billionaire paid for him anyway. Whitsett even got more protection. trading jermaine o'neal for dale davis davis was a star last season and most importantly played well against shaq in the 2000 finals. jermaine o'neill sure had potential, but he barely got to play, the blazers weren't looking raise the young. guys, they were looking to win a championship in 2001. their slogan for the year was a team a dream that dream a ring seemed very feasible the team part could actually be a problem with the highest payroll in the league whitsett had put together a team like that Deep down, their bench was full of stars and career starters who were impressive on paper, but it was hard to see how they were all going to harmoniously share playing time, but hey, a professional GM wasn't worried, so it's probably fine. and during the first half of the season. it was better than good at the all star break the blazers were the best in the west there sure wasn't enough playing time for everyone and the guys got mad career starters kemp and davis didn't adjust super solder coming off the bench steve Smith slumped and was replaced in the starting lineup by young Bonzi Wells, which he didn't mind, but here's the problem, when your team dominates left and right, you can't complain too much or I mean you can, but no one will tell you. will hear at all times. cheering at the trade deadline, they were 38 and 17 and Whitsett said he didn't plan to make any moves.

Why mess with success? Why mess with success? Wit: He didn't make any trades, but he did add more former stars to a team that already had too much talent in late February Pippin returned from injury, but Whitsitt decided to sign his temporary replacement for the rest of the year anyway, so That Portland had too many small forwards Stacey Ogman, who had played well in Pippin's absence, was pushed to the back of the bench Then, on March 5, Whitsett signed Rog Strickland. You know him, the accomplished starting point guard who had been the Blazers' facilitator in the mid-90s, but what about their current starting point guard, Damon Stodomier?

Well, now she started to fear for his place as well. Spiral about whether or not the front office believed in him, as did backup point guard Greg Anthony, who was injured but planned to return before there were two guys in front of him, the entire Blazers were nervous, management had sent several messages of that they had to submerge. in production you could lose your starting job, get hurt a little, you could lose your backup job, someone else would get hurt and you play pretty well, we don't really care, play very well for the number one team in the west, your starting job isn't there yet safe in Portland. confidence shattered lost five games in a row after strickland was added there was a palpable unease on the court when you're losing there's not much point in being humble and generous or even silent about your playing time on march 13 while the blazers were losing a fourth game in a row pippin was substituted and said loud enough for the media to hear dunleavy can't train later in the game wells was taken off and was a bit aggressive about it wallace would have had all the playing time he would have wanted if would have been that way wasn't because of their ongoing battle with the referees, so that doesn't help by early April, the Blazers had fallen from first place in the West to sixth, at which point they said, "Hey, a team can suffer from more than just chemistry problems and us.

I will prove it on april 5th sean kemp left the team and went into rehab for drug addiction people felt sorry for kemp and got mad at whitsett for hiring him in the first place and then the next night bonzi wells tore his acl, His escape had been one of the few bright spots left for this team and the fans couldn't even blame Wisit for this, it was just sad that the Blazers decided to end the regular season with a bang and by bang I mean of course the sound of a big explosion that hurts the ears.

As much as you threw up in the second-to-last game, Sabonis botched it and accidentally punched Wallace in the face during a timeout. Wallace yelled at him and threw a towel in his face. It was a bad scene that got worse after the game, which was a loss if you can. believe it in the locker room wallace said he beat sabonis to which sabonis simply said i will kill him don levy and wallace got into it and that escalated to a point where the players were holding back wallace and coach dunlevy's head coach was yelling at them that they let wallace fight him, they didn't listen to the head coach on this one so they all lived, which is the only good thing I can say about the 2001 Blazers season, they all lived, they finished seventh in the west and now I have to talk about playoffs, if you are a Blazers fan and this is going to be too painful, maybe find a tennis ball to squeeze during the next part and also the rest of the video, the first round They faced the reigning champions, the Lakers, the team they were supposed to be rivals with.

For Shaq's entire career, the team that was supposed to be his only obstacle to a title was swept, losing every game by double digits. This team was a shell of what they were before and the shell had a dead hermit crab in it for about a week. After the season, Dunleavy was fired and, despite fan sentiment, Whitsett stayed and saw if he could clean up the mess he had made on the team before the 2002 season. The Blazers lost some guys in the season. free agency. Sabonis retired and Steve Smith and Greg. anthony were swapping with whitson added ruben patterson a few months earlier patterson entered an amended guilty plea to attempted third degree rape of his family's babysitter Seattle greeted him no one else was interested except the blazers who wanted to give him another chance or didn't care about his By legal issues or some combination of both, they also drafted power forward Zach Randolph and hired first head coach Maurice Chekes in hopes that the new crew could help right the ship a few months into the O2 season and the ship It just bobbed up and down. 500 did nothing but make fans dizzy and his repaired knee was a bright spot until he gave Sports Illustrator a quote about the lack of support from Portland fans saying we're really not going to worry about what the hell the fans think fans of us.

We really don't mind being as generous as possible. This is a young man who says he won't be distracted. He's just using the worst possible words to say, "Oh, oh, wait, there's more, they may boo us every day, but they are." They are still going to ask us for autographs if they see us on the street, that's why they are fans and we are NBA players, you know that I no longer feel like being generous. Portland finished sixth in the West and once again faces the Lakers in the first round were swept again and the games were characterized by rude behavior, and also during the playoffs, Stodemeyer was under investigation for serious possession of marijuana, but hey, some of the playoff games were very close players and the coaches were not trying to fight each other yes and wallace only received 27 text messages this year the o2 season counts as a rebound it's still a long way from 2000, but it must be said that the glass is full of a drop, it's not an empty glass, I don't want it to happen to me Take away, okay, 2002. 2003, how were the Blazers going to capitalize on this drop in momentum?

First they got a bonus for coming out of retirement, then they rehired Wells, who affirmed a new attitude. Whitsett once again stockpiled talent without regard to how they might share playing time. but honestly, the disputes over playing time at O3, of which there were a few, would be the least of the Blazers' problems. You may have heard of Portland's nickname, the Jailblazers. Well, the 2003 team really went with that name in early November. Bonzi Wells was suspended for spitting. Danny Fairy Fairy may have provoked him with a racial slur, but that was swept under the rug in late November.

Wallace and Sodermeier were stopped for speeding and the police smelled weed. Wallace allegedly told the officer he wouldn't find weed because they had already smoked it all. Wallace was wrong. Four days later, Ruben Patterson, still on probation in the Seattle sexual assault case, was arrested for domestic assault. His wife later asked for the charges to be dropped. On December 20th the Blazers defeated Golden State in a Sheed Buzzer Beater, okay, a moment of celebration and I mean a literal moment because look here at Bonzi Wells and Chris Mills and that turned into a big chaotic brawl.

I think someone grabbed a chair right here. Fans threw things at the Blazers and when a fan threw. chewing gum and hit sheed, he tried to go up to the stands to sternly tell the guy that it was inappropriate. Wells was suspended two games and Wallace was fined 15 thousand quick breaks for good behavior at the beginning of the new year, probably trying to live up to his resolutions, but then, on January 17, Wallace threatened to referee the referee had gave wallace a questionable technique during the game and then they crossed paths outside the stadium the referee said she had raised her arms to hit him she had said she was just talking the referee was now the infamous tim donaghy but that didn't help wallace's case by the time wallace was suspended for seven games fans were sick of blazers and pippin said they should be portland's reputation was in the bathroom of a public restroom that had a public restroom out of service sign on the door, but it was used a lot anyway, but look at this, the Blazers were winning games at the All Star Break, they were 32 and 16 in large part because of the piping cheeks and the point guard, and hey, if all those incidents didn't hurt victory and defeat. record why behave differently i don't want to jinx it at the end of march little used rookie cantel woods was pulled over for speeding police sniffed then found weed which is a familiar story with the least popular player who could fly unless woods did something memorable, yeah, there it is, three days later, Zach Randolph punched Ruben Pattersonduring practice, breaking his eye socket, don't worry, the fight didn't escalate.

Ruben couldn't retaliate because he was still on probation if you're having trouble. keeping track of all of Portland's indiscretions in 2003, just check out this handy chart. One thing that was definitely easy to miss in all the chaos. The Blazers finished one game better than last year in the postseason, coming back from 3-0 to force a Game 7 with Dallas Randolph had a couple of standout performances, but lost Game 7 and went out in the first round once again. If Portland wanted to retain the fans they had left, something had to be done three days after O3's season ended and he resigned as president and general manager.

Their replacements insisted a new wind was blowing and promised fans that the salacious starters were behind them. The promise would be a little harder to keep because Portland lost two more mature guys. They entered free agency. It's a plus for a second and final retirement but the promise would be very difficult to keep because the players behaved the same way in the third game of the 2004 season. Fonzie Wells retaliated against the hecklers with an obscene gesture. They don't say which one, so just pick your favorite and the team will find it. as if to say look everyone this year is going to be different in mid-November Wells cursed his cheeks when he was substituted the team took away his co-captaincy and suspended him for two games wow this year is going to be different in a couple of weeks Later , Zach Randolph was arrested for driving under the influence of marijuana.

He was currently leading the team in points and rebounds and was pretty much the guy who kept his heads above 500, so new winds are blowing, etc.etc, but management decided to postpone disciplinary action and then everyone got distracted because the next day they traded the spitting fan who alienated Bonzi Wells and that was seen as the right move for the long term health of the team, certainly not the immediate health, but the fans didn't care about the record, they just wanted this new respectable team that They promised them, in other words, they wanted to get rid of the fighting technology that was gathering anger and threatening Rasheed Wallace when Portland traded Jeff Mcinnis.

The headlines were just oh, why didn't they trade Wallace in February? It happened that Sheed was sent to Atlanta. General manager Steve Patterson announced the dawn of a new era in Portland by stating that the faces of the

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blazers were gone. In exchange for Wallace they got two former All-Stars with stellar reputations. Portland finished 41-41. 2004 was their first winless season since 1989. But the organization didn't feel bad so this was a rebuilding season. The future looked bright and the fans were happy for a moment. In mid-October, Quintel Woods was under investigation for dogfighting. and animal abuse, which is a new crime for the blazers, but I don't believe what general manager steve patterson meant when he talked about a new era, the blazers suspended woods indefinitely and he eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor abuse animal for which I hate him once the o5 season started.

The team battled injuries and won too, falling 11 games under 500 in early March and Chews was fired. New coach Kevin Pritchard surveyed the scene and declared the season dead. Instead, he used the remaining games to get some experience for his recently drafted young prospects, Travis Outlaw. and sebastian telfair portland finished the 05 season with their worst record since the early 70's at least rookie point guard sebastian telfair developed very well in those last few months he was someone to build around what that meant for free agent damon stottemeyer He wasn't going to stay where he wasn't wanted and the last player from that 2000 team that was 10 and a half minutes away from the NBA Finals was gone, but hopes for that promising team died a long time ago, practically in the next season and then the team simply Freefall until it eliminated every player who ever sparked hope.

What did we learn along the way? Too much talent can be a bad thing, since chemistry is very delicate. We learned that reputation is important to fans and fans are important to an organization. your rep can get you traded and hopefully we'll learn not to speed if we smoke weed in the car twice. They got caught that way, the infighting and indiscretions were certainly a sight, but let's take a moment to remember how good the blazers were. Before all that unpleasant business took over, they were title contenders, title favorites, and some expected to rival the Lakers throughout the 2000s, the same Lakers who captured three titles in 2001 and 2000, the blazers from 2000 were stacked in a perfectly balanced team for a moment in time, that accumulation simply proved too delicate to last thanks for watching my friends and enemies remember to subscribe for notifications to see the blazers in happier times click here to see them in sadder moments but we also have that for the secret base I'm Clara Morris good night and good game