The Portland Trail Blazers are a professional basketball team in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. The Trail Blazers are currently celebrating their 50th NBA season. The franchise owner is Jody Allen, who assumed ownership upon the death of her brother Microsoft co-founder and Vulcan Inc. chairman Paul Allen, in 2018.
The Trail Blazers' rallying cry is "Rip City", coined by play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during their inaugural season. The team holds the NBA record for most consecutive sell-out games – set between April 9, 1977, and November 16, 1995.
The Trail Blazers have retired several players jerseys, including Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame members Clyde Drexler and Bill Walton. Jack Ramsay, who was the Trail Blazers head coach from 1976 to 1986, had the number 77 retired in honor of Portland's only NBA Finals victory in 1977. Portland has had four NBA Rookies of the Year; Geoff Petrie (1971), Sidney Wicks (1972), Brandon Roy (2007) and Damian Lillard (2013). The only NBA Most Valuable Player that earned the award as a member of the Trail Blazers was Bill Walton in 1978.
Background and franchise opening
Harry Glickman got interested in creating an NBA team in his hometown of Portland, Oregon as soon as the Memorial Coliseum was opened in 1960. The league commissioner at the time, Maurice Podoloff, refused on the grounds that Oregon was too far. Given that in the 1960s new commissioner J. Walter Kennedy expanded the league into the West, on February 6, 1970, the NBA board of governors granted Portland – along with Buffalo and Cleveland – the rights to a franchise in return for a $3.7 million admission. Glickman got the money from real estate magnates Robert Schmertz of New Jersey, Larry Weinberg of Los Angeles and Herman Sarkowsky of Seattle – who was recommended by Dick Vertlieb, then general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics.
1970–74: Early franchise history
The Blazers started play in the 1970–71 NBA season, along with the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team was led by coach Rolland Todd, brought from the University of Nevada, and was based around Geoff Petrie, a first-round choice in the 1970 NBA draft out of Princeton University, and LeRoy Ellis, whom they acquired in the 1970 NBA Expansion Draft. In their first season, the Blazers finished with a 29–53 record, which was the best of the three new teams in the NBA. Petrie was named co-Rookie of the Year after averaging 24.8 points per game.
The next season, the Blazers won only 18 games, but rookie Sidney Wicks was named Rookie of the Year after averaging 24.5 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game. The following year, the team used the first pick in the NBA draft on LaRue Martin and the Trail Blazers finished at 21–61.
1974–79: Bill Walton era
The Blazers did not beat their first season's record until they drafted Bill Walton from UCLA in 1974. In the first two years, under coach Lenny Wilkens, the Blazers improved, but still did not post a winning record (nor did they make the playoffs). In the 1976 off-season, Wilkens was fired and replaced with Jack Ramsay. In that off-season, four-time All-Star Sidney Wicks was sent to Boston and the team acquired forward Maurice Lucas in the dispersal draft that occurred when the American Basketball Association was acquired by the NBA.
1977 championship
In the 1976–77 campaign, the Blazers posted their first winning record, going 49–33 under the leadership of Ramsay. Bill Walton led the NBA in both rebounding and blocked shots, and was named to the All-Defensive first team. The team—Walton at center, Lucas and Bob Gross at forward, and Dave Twardzik and Lionel Hollins at guard—made the playoffs for the first time. The Blazers won the NBA championship in their first time in the playoffs. After defeating the Chicago Bulls (who were a Western Conference team at the time) and the Denver Nuggets (a surviving ABA team) in the early rounds, the Blazers defeated the favored Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in four straight games. They then went on to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 4–2 for the championship. Following his dominating performance, Walton was named MVP of the NBA finals.