Oct
16
With the exception of its six-game triumph over the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1977 NBA Finals, the Portland Trail Blazers have always been a tantalizing yet very frustrating franchise.
From the collapse of Bill Walton’s knees to the selection of Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA Draft to failed championship aspirations on separate occasions in the early nineties to the collapse in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, the Blazers have always had the ability to draw people in with the team’s potential only to let them down in the end.
So it’s not hard to blame Portland Trail Blazers fans for feeling a bit worried nowadays after it was learned that Greg Oden, the team’s first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, will miss his entire rookie season following a surprise microfracture surgery.
With that said, Portland fans should not let the Oden setback damper their hopes on the future of the franchise. The Blazers have finally cleaned things up from the discord from earlier this decade (paging Rasheed Wallace and Ruben Patterson) and now feature a plethora of young talent, including 2006-2007 Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and fellow sophomore LaMarcus Aldridge.
The Blazers will not make the playoffs this season but are certainly going in the right direction, with General Manager Kevin Pritchard doing a very nice job the last two drafts and building a team of collegiate winners and quality people that is starting to look like Chicago Bulls West.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Oct
16
Two years to the day that the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in team history (an 89-84 loss to the Chicago Bulls), the NBA opened its doors to two other franchises on this day in basketball in 1970. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated its fellow newbie, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-112 on October 16th approximately 37 years ago.
Entering the 2007-2008 NBA season, the Blazers and the Cavaliers seemingly should be in good spirits but are not. After reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, the Cleveland Cavaliers were miserable last June against the San Antonio Spurs, losing in four forgettable games. Now the team has failed to sign and more importantly replace starting shooting guard Sasha Pavlovic and backup power forward Anderson Varejao. As for Portland, the unbridled excitement of the Greg Oden selection has been dampened by season-ending knee surgery for the rookie, who has been compared to Sam Bowie.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Oct
16
Thirty nine years ago today, the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in franchise history. The Bucks would lose to its I-94 neighbors, the Chicago Bulls, by a score of 89-84. With this date in NBA history in mind, the Bucks provide a great forum to begin Hoops 4 the Soul’s 2007-2008 season previews.
by: Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Oct
16
Five years after setting Barcelona on fire during the 1992 Summer Olympics, Michael Jordan took over Paris for a weekend. Coming off their second straight title and fifth title in seven years, Jordan, Phil Jackson and the Bulls would travel to France for the McDonald’s Championship.
This was not your daddy’s Bulls, however. Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were both absent from participating in the tournament. Pippen was recovering from off-season surgery while Rodman had yet to resign with the Bulls.
Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter as Chicago still had number-23 on its side. Jordan would score a combined 55 points in two games, both victories over PSG Racing and Olympiakso Piraeus, which featured a Bulls selection from the 1995 NBA Draft by the name of Dragan Tarlac.
While the games were hardly memorable (Chicago played a lot of Rusty Larue that weekend), the 1997 McDonald’s Championship was yet another reminder of how Jordan’s Bulls were one of those rare, trascendent teams in the pantheon of sports history and pop culture in general.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Oct
16
As a young child watching a Chicago Bulls game against the Washington Bullets, this writer was taken aback by the tall stick figure on the court at the Chicago Stadium. Towering over the other nine players on the court, the giant who barely fit on the television screen seemed like he would be knocked down by a whiff of air.
Manute Bol, who turns 47 years old today, made people look twice during his surreal NBA career. At 7’6’’, Bol was one of the tallest players in NBA history. His amazing length was made even more bizarre by his weight. Bol only weighed 200 pounds soaking wet and just seemed so out of place on the court.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Two years to the day that the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in team history (an 89-84 loss to the Chicago Bulls), the NBA opened its doors to two other franchises on this day in basketball in 1970. The Portland Trail Blazers defeated its fellow newbie, the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-112 on October 16th approximately 37 years ago.
Thirty nine years ago today, the Milwaukee Bucks played its first game in franchise history. The Bucks would lose to its I-94 neighbors, the Chicago Bulls, by a score of 89-84. With this date in NBA history in mind, the Bucks provide a great forum to begin Hoops 4 the Soul’s 2007-2008 season previews. 
Five years after setting Barcelona on fire during the 1992 Summer Olympics, Michael Jordan took over Paris for a weekend. Coming off their second straight title and fifth title in seven years, Jordan, Phil Jackson and the Bulls would travel to France for the McDonald’s Championship.