[Simmons] There’s been a lot of stuff about Dame Lillard being the Greatest Blazer of all time. He’s the 3rd best Blazer ever— Bill Walton was the best player on the planet for 18 months. How we feel about Jokic now was how we felt about Walton— and Clyde Drexler, were any of you there for that?
by pcwgussej
32 Comments
People prematurely crowned Dame as the greatest Blazer of all-time because they thought he’d stay there his entire career which would have given him the edge.
Bill Walton is better yea
Make it end. Please
He’s right. It’s because in the social media era, recency bias is at an all time high.
Him leaving will ruin his reputation just like kd
Dame was close to being Blazers GOAT, but he ended up staying same amount of time as Clyde with much less success. Sure worse teams, but history blurs out those details
I know Bill annoys some (many?), but his historical knowledge of the NBA is refreshing sometimes. Yeah, he’s old af but that’s why he’s able to check people’s recency bias and say “hey Walton and Drexler were really fucking good, too.”
I think Clyde Drexler is the best followed by Walton.
You know what, maybe
Ehh who really gives a fuck. I hope for Portland fans that Scoot becomes their greatest Blazer.
Preach on, Billy boy
Dame as the greatest Blazer is total recency bias. Wild some people threw Clyde and Walton to the side so easily.
Bill Simmons setting up the alley-oop for Dame to get booed on his return
Well done by him
Honorable mentions- Arvydas Sabonis and Brandon Roy
Dame really almost parlayed his 2 first round game winners into people thinking he was the greatest Blazer of all time and some clutch playoff performer. Kind of respect the gaslighting
A few months ago Blazers fans told me that Dame was their GOAT Blazer over the likes of Clyde and Walton because of his contributions to the community and how loyal he is to the franchise.
Not like Drexler who ended his time with the franchise in bad terms and Walton who had an injury plagued career.
I got clowned because my argument was Drexler got them to the finals twice, Walton got them the chip while Dame didn’t do jackshit besides hit clutch shots and rave about loyalty.I realize that either most of them were too young to watch those players or it’s just recency bias.
Lillard is a HOFer, but literally the peak of his time was getting swept in the conference finals. I didn’t even remember that happened, I had to look it up. Bill Walton won a title, finals MVP and a regular season MVP. Lillard is a good player, he’s never gotten remotely close to where Walton was. Walton is an all time great if his body doesn’t betray him.
These kind of arguments really make me realize how many kids there are on the internet (to make me sound old).
I don’t think this generation understands just how GOOD Bill Walton was because most of us know him as “ESPN PAC-12 basketball & Dead an Co concert goer” Bill Walton and not “NBA Star Bill Walton”
Which is fine since I absolutely love his color commentary work… but he was good back in the day, real good
Walton had the greatest individual season, that’s not even debatable. But he only played 209 games. Was he that much better in those 209 games we can ignore essentially 9 seasons worth of games Dame and Clyde have? I really don’t think you can. Longevity matters.
As for Jokic/Walton comparison, Jokic has been better and has been doing it longer. Walton had 3 elite seasons.
100% this. It’s young people almost exclusively that day Dame is the best Blazer ever because they have no frame of reference. Same thing with GOAT debate where people who saw more than just LeBron overwhelmingly don’t consider him the GOAT. And to be fair, it’s the same thing for people my age with people like Kareem and Wilt; you can’t measure the impact of a player on 30 second clips alone, you just can’t have as educated of an opinion on some shit you weren’t around for.
And I can tell you with no doubt in my mind that Clyde Drexler is a better player than Dame Lillard. Similar path. He asked to go to a contender, got traded from. a rebuilding Blazers, and immediately won late in his career.
It’s a weird trio.
I have a hard time with Walton v. Drexler. Ring vs longevity. No wrong answer IMO. Dame will have his jersey retired, but he can’t be ranked higher than Drexler when you just look at what was accomplished in a blazer jersey. Both guys have the same argument against Walton, but the accolades and team success favor Drexler. Dame might have better counting stats but it’s not something that’s going to sway me given the current era we are in. Simmons mentioned Clyde was like 22k points, 6k assists, 6k boards for his career. He wasn’t a statistical slouch.
I never got to see Walton live, but I’m blessed to barely remember Drexler and have seen all of Dame’s tenure. This will all blow over and I hope when dame is older we welcome him back and he wants to be a part of the organization in some capacity.
I agree that the player who won you your only NBA championship is your franchise’s greatest player. And Clyde Drexler led the Trailblazers to the finals twice and had them competing as contenders throughout his time there. Lilard has an average plus minus of -29.4 in the playoffs and really isn’t that efficient as a scorer, nor is he good at defense (Walton was 1st team defense a couple times). Love the guy but recency bias is really the only argument for him being the greatest Blazer of all time.
Bill’s best take in a while. Recency bias and social media are too real. Drexler is the greatest Blazer of all time. He led the Blazers to the finals twice, and lost to 2 all time great teams, the bad boy pistons and the ‘92 Bulls. He was the 2nd greatest shooting guard of the 90’s behind MJ.
Highest peak is Walton, longevity is Drexler. Whichever you value more, either of them is the greatest Blazer. I’ll agree with putting Dame at third, but I wouldn’t put him above Dexler or Walton.
Since Bill Walton is the largest TrailBlazer, why does he simply not eat all the other TrailBlazers?
I’ve heard people crap on Walton because he asked for a trade – but people don’t realise that **Blazers betrayed Walton in a way that was borderline criminal.**
In his last season with the Blazers, Bill felt an incredible pain in his right foot. **When he went to the team doctor, the doctor game him a** **~~Toradol shot~~** **pain killers and told him to play on.** When the pills stopped working, they switched to injections. When the injections stopped working, they would pump his feet with injections pre-game, half-time, and at the end of games. Not once did they suggest that he rest or sit out.
**Turns out he had snapped one of his foot bone in half.** If this happened in the modern NBA, the entire medical team and the front office will be sacked, cause a public outrage, and ANY PLAYER would have asked out.
Bill Walton gave everything he had for the Blazers; whilst the Blazers literally worked him till he couldn’t even walk properly anymore.
More information here:
https://www.basketballnetwork.net/old-school/why-bill-walton-sued-the-blazers-medical-staff
I get the argument for Walton, Dame and Drexler as goat blazers. Walton brought the only championship to the city. Drexler had the most finals appearances and probably wcf appearances. Dame is the franchise leader in points and was a season away from being the leader in other categories. If we are looking at the full body of work Drexler is probably it. But he doesn’t rep the blazers nearly at all. And fans don’t fuck with him because of it. Dame was on track to. But the team achievement is lacking.
Its amazing all 3 asked to be traded from the team. 1 cause he didn’t think the medical staff did what’s best for him. The other 2 cause the team went different routes from what they were told.
I just got done listening to this and Bill Simmons does have a point. A lot of the media is crowning Dame as the best Blazer of all time without mentioning the other all-time great Blazers. However, Bill’s argument is full of bias, is missing important context, and comes off like an oldhead know-it-all. Here’s my take.
First, he claims Dame is the 3rd best Blazer of all time behind Bill Walton and Clyde Drexler. His argument for Walton is that he was basically Jokic in the 70s and was the best player on the Blazers only championship team in 1977. These are mostly true facts. However, the late 70s are commonly thought of as a low point for the NBA. The NBA/ABA merger happened in 1976 and the 3pt line wasn’t established until 1979. TV ratings and attendance declined and many thought the league might fold until the rise of Magic and Larry in the early 80s. Bill also fails to mention that Bill Walton only played four seasons for the Blazers, totaling only 209 regular season games and 21 playoff games. Compared to Dame, who has played 769 regular season games and 61 playoff games for the Blazers. So this would be somewhat similar to calling Kawhi the best Raptor of all time over Lowry and DeRozan. I think there is an argument for Kawhi, but I don’t think it’s clear cut, and I personally would choose Lowry #1 and DeRozan #2 over him.
Next, Bill says Drexler is the #2 Blazer of all time. First, he blatantly lies about Drexler’s stats, saying that he was a “27/7/7 guy for like 8 years”, when in reality he only did it twice. Not that stats are everything, but let’s compare Clyde and Dame’s best 8 season stretch with the Blazers. From ’87-’94, Clyde averaged 23/6/7 on 48/30/79 shooting splits. From ’16-’23, Dame averaged 28/7/5 on 44/37/90 shooting splits. So overall, they both posted great stats, but I think Dame clearly as an edge here.
Then, Bill makes a good argument for how competitive the Blazers were in the 80s and 90s led by Clyde, including 2 Finals losses in 1990 and 1992. This is the key to putting Clyde above Dame. As Bill mentions, Dame has never even won a single conference final game. I think the Blazers organization deserves a lot of blame for failing to build a truly good team around him. However, it’s undeniable that Clyde had more playoff success than Dame.
In summation, I believe there is an argument for all 3 players being the best Blazer of all time. I think if we’re sticking with a more traditional way of rewarding the long tenured players, Drexler and Dame have the best arguments for #1. While Walton doesn’t have the longevity, he had the best peak.
I love to shit on Bill Simmons as much as the next guy. That being said, he’s a 100% correct on this. How can the franchise’s greatest player have never been to the Finals? When that franchise has actually already one a title? I also agree about Clyde being a greater Blazer too.
all my comedy bang bang fans know how good Bill Walton is
I can’t believe that number of under-30 Blazers fans who shit on me (as a non-Blazers fact) for saying Drexler was more important to the franchise than Dame.
Now that Dame has left, I imagine some of these recency-biased thinkers might come around to say, “You know what, two conference championships, AGAINST the Lakers and other great teams is impressive as fuck, and losing to only the Bad Boys (the team who beat Jordan THREE YEARS IN A ROW) and Jordan’s Bulls… understandable.”
That “Oh… but Dame got to the conference finals one year because of lucky seeding and scored a lot on a mediocre team is perhaps not as impressive as resume as Drexler’s.”
No diss to Dame, but Drexler achieved more than Dame in that jersey, even if he scored less.
Clyde took them to the finals too….but ran into prime Jordan 😵