ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704080020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PORTLAND, ORE.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
For one year, the Portland Trail Blazers were the class of the NBA.
A sunny Sunday afternoon in June 1977 stands unchallenged as the apex of this city's otherwise undistinguished sports history.
Last week, the 1976-77 Trail Blazers returned to Portland to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers for the NBA championship.
Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas, Bob Gross, Lionel Hollins and Dave Twardzik were there. So were Johnny Davis, Larry Steele, Lloyd Neal, Corky Calhoun and Herm Gilliam. Robin Jones, a backup rookie center who played only one season in Portland, managed the trip from Houston.
His body ravaged by a stroke in August 1995, the wheelchair-bound Jones couldn't stop smiling as he joined the other tuxedo-clad players and coaches on the stage during a fund-raising dinner in Memorial Coliseum, where the Blazers had beaten Julius Erving and the 76ers 109-107 on June 5, 1977, to clinch their only national title.
The former champs are scattered across the country. Walton and coach Jack Ramsay are television analysts. Davis is coach of the 76ers. Twardzik is general manager at Golden State. Hollins is an assistant coach at Vancouver.
Gross runs a construction company. Neal works for the Internal Revenue Service. Lucas, Gross, Steele, Gilliam and Neal still live in Portland.
All of them seemed to revel in the opportunity to revisit that remarkable spring.
``Yesterday, Corky and Herman and I were watching some film and we were saying, `God, we were good!''' said Jack McKinney, Ramsay's only assistant on that championship team.
The grainy films show a team with a fluid, unselfish style, all five players in constant motion, a stark contrast to today's slow, post-up, half-court game.
``That team is the last one where you had real motion on offense,'' McKinney said. ``Unfortunately for the game, you have not seen it since. But it was poetry in motion. It was fun to watch and fun to play, and when we watch it now, we're in awe of how good we were.''
Some of the players hadn't seen each other since that championship run, and they stayed up until 3 a.m. Friday reminiscing.
``I've been having so much fun this week,'' Walton said, ``my face is sore from smiling. I feel like I've just woke up from a Grateful Dead concert.''
Walton was at the center, literally and emotionally, of that championship team. With his long red hair, red beard and radical politics, Walton was an enigma in those days in Portland. But for that season and most of the next, he might have been the best player in basketball. Certainly no one was more competitive.
He led the league in rebounding and blocked shots. His incomparably quick outlet passes ignited a devastating fast break. But off the court, he was uncooperative and uncommunicative, largely because of his severe stuttering.
Now, he's an outspoken television analyst who goes out of his way to praise his time in Portland.
``Now that I've learned to talk,'' Walton said, ``You can't get me to shut up.''
He was the animated center of the reunion, often wearing the jacket that he received for being chosen one of the best 100 NBA players of all time.
In 1977, Portland was in only its seventh season in the league and never had made the playoffs.
Ramsay was in his first season with the Blazers, and he and general manager Stu Inman built a squad to complement Walton's skills. The final, crucial additions were Lucas and Twardzik from the defunct American Basketball Association.
The team struggled on the road through much of the season but still finished 49-33, second to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Pacific Division.
The Blazers survived a tough best-of-3 first-round series with the Chicago Bulls to make it to the second round, where they beat the Denver Nuggets in six games.
Then Portland swept the Lakers, the team with the NBA's best record, to advance to the finals.
The Blazers lost the first two games at Philadelphia. But something happened in that second game that turned things around.
Gross went up for a rebound and Philadelphia's Darryl ``Chocolate Thunder'' Dawkins went over his back, grabbed the ball with both hands and flipped Gross onto the court.
``He body-slammed him right on his face,'' Lucas said, pretending to wipe away a tear. ``It was just awful.''
Dawkins took a swing at Gross as Philadelphia's Doug Collins joined in. Lucas, known as ``The Enforcer,'' waded into the fray and squared off with Dawkins.
McKinney remembered that a Philadelphia fan jumped on his back, and Erving came to the rescue.
``He grabbed the guy and threw him up into about the third row and said, `Coach, you better get back to the bench. It's safer there,''' McKinney said.
The melee finally was quieted, but Dawkins remained enraged and warned of extreme violence in the next game.
Lucas, though, was a master at mind games and he was ready when the series shifted to Portland.
``I wanted to confuse him in that third game,'' Lucas said. ``He had talked about killing me. I wanted to put him on the defense. So when they announced my name and there was a roaring standing ovation and people were going crazy, I went over to him and shook his hand as hard as I could and said, `Have a good game.'''
Portland won the next four. When George McGinnis' shot bounced off the rim at the buzzer in Game 6, Walton ripped off his jersey and flung it into the crowd. All across town, the celebration began.
The next day, the team held a triumphant parade, drawing the biggest crowd ever assembled downtown. For some 20 blocks, it was a solid mass of people.
``There were more people there than live in the state of Oregon,'' Walton said.
At a rally after the parade, Walton poured a beer over the head of Mayor Neil Goldschmidt as he tried to give a speech.
``I'm still waiting for him to pay the cleaning bill,'' Goldschmidt said.
Goldschmidt, who went on to become U.S. transportation secretary and Oregon governor, said Friday that the championship was a defining moment for the city.
``You brought the world to a small town in the Northwest,'' he told the ex-Blazers. ``You made us feel good about ourselves.''
The young Portland team had the makings of a dynasty.
``As good as we were, we could have won it four or five more times,'' Ramsay said.
In 1977-78, the Blazers went 50-10 before Walton injured an ankle that ended his season and plagued him the rest of his career. He blamed the Blazers for poor medical treatment and signed with the San Diego Clippers.
Ramsay stayed as Portland's coach for 10 seasons, but he never had another title contender.
``For me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,'' he said, echoing the feelings of his former players and the town's graying Blazermaniacs, ``and one that I will cherish forever.''
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