The Story Behind The Portland Jail Blazers

The Story Behind The Portland Jail Blazers

There’s a certain image when one thinks of the Portland Trailblazers I think you know what that image is but I am curious as to what you think it is and how it affects you after the game though the players had to be separated a little jawn I guess easy

Guys not even to the allstar break yet both teams play hard my man majority of the media and people out there always think about is the jail Blazers they were the bad boys of the northwest hien to Wallace knocked away Wallace got it back scores plus a foul now rased Wallace is going to have to be very careful a collection of players and characters tossed together in halfhazard fashion collectively forming teams that became Infamous despite limited success

There’s the Miss that’ll be it the Los Angeles Lakers for the second consecutive year have swept the Portland Trailblazers from perennial excellence to Perennial Dysfunction this is the story behind Portland’s jail Blazers Era for nearly three decades beginning in the mid ’70s the Trailblazers were a model of consistency and small Market Excellence it began with a Bill Walton Le championship in 1977 with the great Blazers teams of Walton and head coach Jack Ramsay eventually giving way to Portland squads led by Clyde Drexler and

Rick Adelman in the 80s and 90s the jail Blazers moniker was first bestowed upon the team heading into the 1996 97 season by the Willet weeklys Moren o Haagen who wrote a cover article about the legal issues many players on that year’s roster had dealt with in the past but as

The 21st century approached Rip City still had Blazer’s fever and understandably so Portland made the playoffs 26 times in 27 Seasons with a new look team that saw Scotty Pippen joined Rasheed Wallace Damon stmy Steve Smith arvida sabonis and bonsi Wells fueling Championship hopes again during

The 1999 2000 campaign a 59 win Blazers team found itself in the Western Conference Final for the second straight year and the fifth time in 11 Seasons but a game seven collapse would set the franchise back back for more than a decade after rallying from a 3-1 series

Deficit against a top seated Lakers team led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant the Blazers blew a 154th quarter lead in game seven a 29-9 Lakers run not only ending Portland’s season but kickstarting a dynasty in La general manager Bob wit it had seen enough feeling as though he needed to shake

Things up if the Blazers were ever going to get over the hump wit it embarked on a series of moves that back backfired ultimately tanking the franchise and his own career it began with signing and trading Brian Grant as part of a three- team deal with Cleveland and Miami that

Brought sha Kemp to Portland wit it then traded promising but little used big man Germain O’Neal to Indiana for veteran Dale Davis believing Davis and Kemp could help the Blazers deal with Sha’s physicality in an eventual playoff rematch the ensuing season then tipped off with an opening night loss to the

Lakers that saw Shaq post 36 points 11 rebounds and four blocks and ended with a humiliating first round sweep to the Lakers in which Shaq averaged 27 points and 16 rebounds over three games so much for that meanwhile Jo blossomed into a six-time Allstar in Indiana Portland’s lone All-Star was making headlines for

All the wrong reasons Wallace was suspended once by the league and twice by the team during that 20201 season most famously for throwing a tower at sabonis face during a late season loss to who else but the Lakers Rasheed was also ejected from seven games that year

And broke his own single season record by accumulating 41 technical fouls during that derailed campaign the Blazers signed former fan favorite rod Strickland only a couple months after his second drunk driving conviction in 4 years with the Beloved sabonis retiring soon after and pipping on his last legs questions about the Blazers leadership

Void and chemistry issues began to dominate the conversation with Coach turned analyst Doug Collins referring to witd as a rotisserie League manager head coach Mike Dunley paid the price despite winning 64% of his games a coach of the year award and four playoff series in Four Seasons on the job dun leevy was

Fired during the 2001 offseason and replaced by rookie head coach Mo Cheeks wit’s biggest move of the summer brought far more criticism however looking for a scoring punch Off the Bench the Blazers signed Ruben patters away from the division rival superponics only months after Patterson’s sentencing for attempted third degree rape he also

Faced a five-game NBA suspension to begin his debut season as a Blazer had Patterson remained in Seattle he would have had to register as a sex offender on the court the remnants of a contender remained but the Blazers never lived up to the hype a 49 wi Portland team was

Swept out of the 2002 playoffs in the first round by you guessed it the Lakers mean while the offc court drama continued 20-year-old rookie Zack Randolph who was supposed to represent a brighter future for the franchise was arrested for underage drinking on Memorial Day weekend after Police

Stopped the SUV he was driving because it matched the description of one being used by gang members the combination of annual disappointments on the court and personal transgressions off of it began to wear on the Blazers once fervent fan base with attendance and local TV ratings plummeting as one fan wrote in a

Letter to The Oregonian early in the 20012 2002 season cheering for the Blazers today seems almost dirty can’t amount to selling one soul for a cheap thrill as Wells once told Sports Illustrated about those very Blazers fans we’re not really going to worry about what the hell they think about us

They really don’t matter to us they can boo us every day but they’re still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street that’s why they’re fans and were NBA players it was always supposedly had said that it was some beef between myself and the fans or or a

Couple players on the team and the fans but it’s it’s no it’s no beef at all no matter if everyone says you’re a good player or everybody says that you know you suck or whatever you still got to go out there on that hardwood and and do

Your job the team would somehow sink even lower The Following season after Wallace hit a game winner against the Warriors in December of 02 a skirmish between Wells and Golden State’s Chris Mills erupted into an allout brawl when Oakland fans began throwing gum and plastic beer bottles Wallace and some of

His teammates needed to be restrained from going after them a chaotic scene that foreshadowed the malice at the palace 2 years later a postgame fight was the least of Portland’s worries That season though Patterson was fined $100,000 after he was charged with assaulting his wife who later declined

To press charges Wallace stmy and rookie kintel Woods were cited for various marijuana related charges with Woods reportedly giving officers a rookie trading card when asked to produce his license and registration meanwhile Wells was suspended one game for spitting on Spurs forward Danny Ferry though wells’s agent alleged that Fair’s racist

Language sparked the incident Wallace was also suspended seven games for allegedly confronting and threatening referee Tim doni yes that Tim Don in the rose gardens loading dock after a January 2003 contest finally a fight at practice between Randolph and Patterson left Zebo suspended and Patterson with a fractured orbital socket that limited

Him in the playoffs where Portland fell in seven games to an ascended Mass team during the first round rubbe and Q Quintel they having a little beef over you know a little foul and so you know coach like all right yeah man whatever it was a foul they like you

Know let’s get back to playing but man they took that personal so you know it’s like they was like face to face like Ru and Quintel was like this face to face and then like we all saw it I Ain expect it out of nowhere Zach came and poow hit

Rube in his face he hit him in his eye and as we found out later that he fractured his orbital socket God damn it was during that 2003 series vers Dallas that Wallace who had grown tired of how he and the Blazers were covered by the media provided one of the most unforget

Edible postgame press conferences in sports history both teams play hard my man you think it was a good game you think both teams play hard both teams play hard both teams play hard both teams play hard God bless and good night the absurdity and dysfunction was finally enough for witon who left the

Blazers behind but remained team president of owner Paul Allen’s NFL franchise the Seattle Seahawks the news was met with a good riddance from Blazers fans who never got over the fact that Wit It formerly a Sonic executive resided in Seattle while running the Blazers with wit it gone and a chance

For a fresh start in front of them Allen and new team President Steve Patterson instituted a code of conduct for Trailblazers players ahead of the 20032 2004 season as well as a 25-point pledge to their jilted and now jaded fans still just a couple weeks into the new season

Wells was suspended two games and stripped of his co- Captain title for berating cheeks on the sidelines during a loss in Dallas to give you an idea of how fed up with Wells Antics Blazers fans were when he was traded That season for Wesley pson a 32-year-old reserve

Averaging less than six points per game Pon received a minute long Ovation upon checking in for his Blazers debut Wells wasn’t the only Casualty that season as Wallace was later traded with person to Atlanta in exchange for Sharie Abdul rahee Dan dickout and Theo Ratliff 10 days after that the Hawks flipped

Rasheed to Detroit where he would help the Pistons win the 2004 title taking down Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers in the finals with Wallace gone and the team further disintegrating the 2003 2004 Trailblazers finished 41- 41 missing the playoffs for the first time in 22 years winning basketball had left Portland but

Controversy would linger behind a while longer Darius miles who the Blazers acquired early in 2004 was suspended two games during the 20042 2005 season for verbally berating cheeks during a practice with Miles reportedly referring to cheeks as a lame duck coach he didn’t have to listen to a couple months later

Cheeks was indeed fired but miles issues were far from resolved The Following Season miles clashed with new coach Nate McMillan disillusioned by a lack of playing time miles even changed into his street clo during halftime of one game during the 20052 2006 campaign shortly before the incident between miles and

Cheeks the Blazers waved Woods after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal abuse stemming from allegations of dog fighting by the time the jail Blazers era had reached its Nader some were even calling for the NBA to give the entire Trailblazers franchise an NCAA like death penalty out of the concrete Bloom

The city of rose’s new flower however as 50 and 60 lost teams at the end of the jail Blazers era allowed for Portland to acquire Andor draft young Talent like LaMarcus Aldridge Brandon Roy and Greg Odin Paving the way for a return to the playoffs in 2009 the legacy of the jail

Blazers is a complicated one there’s no doubt those Blazers teams of the early a sullied the reputation of what had been one of the NBA’s proudest franchises but there were also undeniable racist undertones in the criticism of Portland’s most malign players through a modern lens the litany marijuana related

Charges and headlines seem especially overblown still few teams have had as many serious offc court issues or instances of In-House dysfunction as those Trailblazer squads did no matter your sport of choice will almost certainly never see teams quite like those again thanks for watching if you like

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They were the bad boys of the Northwest. A collection of players and characters tossed together in haphazard fashion; collectively forming teams that became infamous despite limited success.This is the story behind Portland’s Jail Blazers era.

Written & Narrated by: Joseph Casciaro (@JosephCasciaro | X)
Produced & Edited by: James Balutan (@jamesbalutan | Instagram)
Additional Edits by: Stephen Addante (@stephenaddante | Instagram)
Thumbnail Design by: Justin Shipley (@shipleysportstudio | Instagram)

Courtesy List: https://pastebin.com/3qPEcLpv

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