In case you haven't already heard, Kevin Duckworth passed away last night in Lincoln City, Oregon.
In no way did I know him personally or anything like that. But Kevin Duckworth and the Portland Trailblazer teams of the early-to-mid 90's provided many of the happiest moments of my youth. And I had a damned good childhood people. I absolutely loved those Blazers teams, as did everyone in the state of Oregon. I can still remember watching the Blazers beating the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix in game 5 to advance to the Western Conference finals. Me, my mom and my dad were yelling so loud with excitement that we made my little sister break into tears. It was truly a great moment.
I don't think anything will ever compare to those childhood days of Blazermania. I can honestly say that I don't think anything like that is going to happen ever again. Even now, with Oden and the great, young team we have here in Portland right now, it still doesn't compare. I just don't know if it ever will. I guess the only thing that can top those "good old" days of "Blazermania" would be an NBA title for Roy, Oden, Outlaw and the boys.
Those teams were something else though. Interesting thought from Ball Don't Lie blog: "Those Portland teams were brilliant. I'm having a hard time coming up with a recent team that played as well without actually ending the season with the crown, because modern almost-there's like the Suns and Mavericks weren't even in Portland's league."
Wow. Amen to that. More thoughts on Duckworth and those Blazer teams here.
