If you’re thinking that the buzz surrounding the Portland Trail Blazers sending two players (F/C LaMarcus Aldridge and PG Damian Lillard) to the All-Star Game in New Orleans this weekend is over the top, it isn’t.
It’s not unusual for elite teams to send multiple players, yet it’s been 20 years since the Portland Trail Blazers have sent two or more players to the NBA’s All-Star Game.
Let that sink in.
The Blazers, who have a history mostly cherished by local fans, have not sent more than a single player to the NBA’s midseason showcase in two decades. For a good portion of that time, it has been difficult to find even a single all-star on the Blazers roster, as only three players (LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy, and Rasheed Wallace) have been selected as all-stars while members of the Blazers during that span. Making matters even more frustrating is that the team has not been in serious contention for the title since the 1999-2000 season, when they lost to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in game 7 of the conference finals, and have not won a single playoff series since.
In the 44 years the Blazers have been active in the NBA, they have sent multiple players to the All-Star Game just 7 other times. And the fact that the team has been presumably “unable” to draft or trade for the type of player who night in and night out gives an all-star performance is quite vexing given the talent they have had over the years. A better way to put it is that the league and its fans have not given Blazers players their due credit for quite a while. It may surprise you to learn that local fan favorites Buck Williams and Jerome Kersey were never selected as an all-star in their time in Portland, and that Kersey never received a single selection during his entire career. Even Terry Porter and Kevin Duckworth were only selected twice each despite being two of the best players at their positions during their respective primes in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
The Blazers have actually sent three players twice (1978, 1991), both coming in years after an NBA Finals appearance. If you’re concerned the current Blazers have lost their way and obscure stats help right your hope ship, you should know that the Blazers have only sent multiple players in a year that they missed the playoffs once (1974), and were a playoff team if not an elite title contender in the West the other 6 times (77, 78, 89, 91, 93, 94).
The last time the Blazers sent two players, many of you were in diapers. It was 1994, and Clyde Drexler and Cliff Robinson were selected as members of the 12 players the fans and coaches thought would best represent the Western Conference. It’s been a long time since. For those of you who were old enough to experience watching that game and understand its significance in Blazers history, the wait has to have felt even longer. The game would be Drexler’s 8th and final as an all-star in Portland and Robinson’s lone all-star selection of his lengthy career.
None of that history is meant to depress you, however, rather to point out just how good the Blazers really are this year, and that the rest of the league is aware of it, and that sending two players to the all-star game is a really big deal.
Sure, they’re 3-4 in the month of February and fresh off two close losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers, two of the top teams in the Western Conference, let alone the entire NBA. But that doesn’t mean that the season is slipping away or that you shouldn’t care about the significance of the team sending two players to New Orleans. You should relax and enjoy the game while the rest of the Blazers get a much needed break until they play at home against San Antonio on February 19th, a game in which they should look as fresh and fast as they did in November and December when they were arguably the hottest team in the league.
At 36-18 they still have twice as many wins as they do losses, and need to win just half of their remaining games to reach 50 wins. 50 wins would make the Blazers a virtual lock for the playoffs, and if they get their energy back (and can consistently commit to actually playing defense), they can really make a push for the top 5 seeds in the West in the second half of the season.
So they lost a game or two. Don’t worry, Rip City. It’s a long season, and the Blazers will get their mojo back.
For now, enjoy the break. Watch and enjoy the All-Star Game this Sunday. If you have kids who are Blazers fans and are old enough to appreciate the game, make sure they watch some of it also. Take notice when Aldridge is going against Roy Hibbert or Joakim Noah or Chris Bosh in the post. Make sure you watch intently when Lillard gets to run the floor alongside James Harden and Kevin Durant while taking on the likes of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade and Kyrie Irving on the same court.
While Aldridge and Lillard were not voted to the team by the fans, they were selected by the coaches, which to some players is an even higher honor, as it means opposing coaches around the league respect and appreciate their play.
This is the best of the best players in the NBA, and no matter how you choose to look at it, two of Portland’s best are representing the Western Conference and will take the court during the All-Star game for the first time in 20 years.
You just don’t know the next time you’ll see this happen.
It’s a big deal.
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