During my senior year, there were NBA scouts at my games. At some point, I guess, I started hoping I'd get drafted by a team where there would be a great situation for me. As it turned out, Portland was the best situation for me.
Once you own a team for as many years as I have, and you root for that team for that period of time, you've got rooting for the Blazers in your blood, and the Sonics are one of our arch-competitors.
I don't think there's ever been a team that ever scored more layups than that Blazers team.
Going to the Portland Trail Blazers, who actually took the time to invest in me, was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me in my career. I got to a small market where I could focus on basketball, basketball, basketball. No distractions.
If I had to make a choice for the Hall of Fame... I would have gone in as a Portland Trail Blazer.
We had some great years in Portland. We went to the finals twice. We won 63 games one year. You can't tell me those weren't championship teams.
The Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan’s three-point explosion in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals against Portland is easily one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. As he made his sixth straight, he winked directly at (broadcast partner) Mike (Fratello) and me and held his palms up in a shrug, as if to say, What can I do?
I miss playing basketball and the city of Portland and the Rose Garden.
You have to understand, the Blazers and their fans had a unique relationship. I'm not sure there has ever been a love affair between an NBA team and its fan base like we had... We had good players and good citizens.
