Perhaps never before has one game -- and in particular, one quarter -- so stained an NBA franchise as that infamous fourth quarter from the Trail Blazers on a cloudless June day in Los Angeles in 2000.
As it turns out, the Blazers lost more than a trip to the NBA Finals that day. As an organization, they began to lose their way.
So much so, that six years later, the Blazers find themselves heading to Tuesday's NBA draft lottery as the league's worst team, with massive financial losses, uncertain ownership and little hope of quick recovery.
A once-proud franchise, one that made 21 consecutive playoff appearances and was arguably one of the model organizations in all of sports, has become a laughingstock.
The debatable financial decisions, including a $167 million spending spree in the summer of 2004 that still hounds the team?
Or was it the bad-boy characters who created such bad feelings that a die-hard fan base dwindled to financially crippling levels?
Those involved with the Blazers, both currently and in the past, have varying opinions of what, where and when things went wrong, probably because there are so many examples from which to choose.
"It's a shame," said Brian Grant, the rugged power forward who was the heart and soul of the Blazers during their back-to-back runs to the Western Conference finals.
"There was a connection in this city between the team and the fans, and it's sorry to see that it's lost."
"What a weird ending," remembers Derek Fisher, a reserve guard for the Lakers in 2000 who now plays for
It changes people's lives, it changes a city."
Two months later, Whitsitt pulled off perhaps his greatest coup, sending six mostly nondescript Blazers to
Whitsitt also traded for the draft rights to a bulky rookie named Bonzi Wells, and signed free agent veteran Detlef Schrempf.
The moves worked, as a starting lineup of Damon Stoudamire at point guard, Smith at shooting guard, Pippen at small forward, Wallace at power forward and Sabonis at center -- coupled with a bench of Grant, Schrempf, Wells, Greg Anthony and Jermaine O'Neal -- bolted out of the gate to a 45-11 record.
By the time both teams had reached the conference finals, the anticipation was palpable. The NBA's two best teams would go head to head for a trip to the finals, where the Western Conference champion would be a heavy favorite over
A change to the Blazers' rotation, however, altered the series. Beginning with Game 5, Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy predominantly used a big lineup that featured moving Pippen from forward to point guard and using Wells, the bruising rookie, at small forward.
With the big lineup, the series turned.
The Blazers won Game 5 in Los Angeles 96-88, then won 103-93 in the Rose Garden, with Pippen using the final seconds to confidently stride around the court with both arms raised, a moment captured in a photo that still hangs at the entrance to the Blazers' training room in Tualatin.
"Back from the brink of elimination, to the brink of the NBA Finals . .
. the Lakers have outscored
The Blazers led by 16 in the final seconds of the third quarter, but Brian Shaw banked in a three-pointer with four seconds left, cutting the Blazers lead to 71-58 heading into the fourth.
"I remember going to the bench, and I looked at the score, thinking, 'We couldn't lose if we wanted to,' " Stoudamire said.
Smith opened the quarter by making a running shot, and later, after Wells made two free throws, the Blazers led 75-60 with 10:28 left.
Wallace, who had a dominant series and Game 7, missed six shots in a row. Smith, who had carried the Blazers in the third quarter, missed his next four shots. Pippen was 0 for 3.
All told, the Blazers missed 13 consecutive shots.
"Typically, when you lose a big lead like that, you didn't execute your offense, but we got 13 shots -- 11 of them great, two of them just good," Dunleavy said.
The back breakers came in the final minutes.
Wallace missed two free throws with 1:25 left and the Blazers trailing 81-79. Then, with the Blazers down four with 26 seconds left, Smith drove the lane and was sent to the floor by Shaquille O'Neal, without a call.
"That's it," Costas shouted in to the microphone at the final buzzer.
"I'm not sure if the Lakers won, or if they escaped."
The Blazers were outscored 31-13 in the final quarter while making five of 23 shots. It was the largest comeback in the seventh game of a Western Conference finals.
Remarkably, Dunleavy says the game remains one of his all-time favorites because his substitution patterns and game plan worked as well as he could have expected.
As the losers of such an intense series, it was the Blazers who felt they needed to make moves to combat the Lakers' strengths, primarily the inside dominance of Shaquille O'Neal and the dynamic play of Kobe Bryant.
"When you are that close, the theory is you just make a couple changes and you can improve," Blazers owner Paul Allen recalled this spring.
Had the Game 7 outcome been different, perhaps the Lakers, who were exposed defensively at power forward, would have rebuilt to find an answer for the dominance of Wallace.
"There is a general rule of thumb in this game, that if you end up in second place in the NBA you probably stick with what you have been doing," Phil Jackson said last month. "But if you have a decided weakness, then you make your changes.
But the key with that is that once people saw we were over the hump, we had reached a peak level. They had to change their style."
Whitsitt was quoted as saying: "We have a really good team.
One thing you don't want to do is start doing things to do things."
And Dunleavy said: "I am very happy with our team. We have a shot to win the title with this same group.
"
But by the end of the month, Grant opted out of the last four years of his contract, worth $40 million, and a disgruntled Jermaine O'Neal -- unhappy about limited playing time -- had decided he would boycott the team's summer league.
By the end of August, both would be traded in moves that arguably rival the 1984 drafting of Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan as the worst in Blazers history.
"After that series I could tell things were going to be on shaky ground," Grant said.
"I knew Jermaine O'Neal was probably on his way out as far as being traded and I kind of had a feeling, that even if I stayed, I felt like their interests were in other players elsewhere and it was my time to leave."
Grant's decision put Whitsitt in a tight spot. He was caught between letting a player get away for nothing or making a trade that could keep the Blazers in what he called "the championship window.
"
Allen says Whitsitt lobbied hard for Kemp, thinking the 31-year-old could rekindle the years when he played above the rim and was known as the "Reign Man" in
The trade was a flop, as an overweight Kemp reported to
3 points in two seasons with the Blazers, which included his entering a drug rehabilitation clinic for cocaine abuse.
Jermaine O'Neal, a talented 22-year-old post taken out of high school in the 1996 draft, was increasingly upset at his lack of playing time.
O'Neal wasn't the only one upset.
On more than one occasion, Allen entered Dunleavy's office before a game to demand that O'Neal play more. Despite the owner's wishes -- and standout practices from O'Neal -- the future star averaged only 12 minutes in 1999-2000 as he was stuck behind Wallace, Grant, Sabonis and Schrempf.
"The guys who were there understood the talent he was," Grant said.
"We were playing the games, but he was killing us in practice. And you felt bad for him; but at the same time, you were like 'I want to play, too.'
"Me and 'Sheed used to have conversations with him, telling him to keep his head up, 'Don't give up, your time will come.
' But it's hard to hear that at that age, especially when you are coming into practice and busting guys up, and then those same guys are going out and busting people down, getting all the accolades."
The next season, O'Neal began the first in a string of stellar seasons, averaging 12.9 points, 9.
8 rebounds and tying for the NBA lead in blocks. The next season he would be named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the first of four All-Star appearances.
"Oh yeah, in retrospect I regret both," Allen said this spring. "But Bob argued very strongly to make both of those moves. I was frustrated about Jermaine because I lobbied every way I knew how to get Jermaine playing time, and the coaching staff wasn't receptive to it.
You could just see the potential there. And of course, Bob Whitsitt had big hopes that Shawn Kemp would return to form and be the monster player he was at the top of his game.
"I didn't want to do the deal," Dunleavy said.
"The bottom line is I was told they were doing the deal because it was my fault that I wouldn't play Jermaine. I said, 'You are out of your mind.' .
. . I said within two years he would be our starting center.
Sabonis would be retired -- 'He'll be totally happy, he's a great kid, it will totally blow over.'
"Sometimes you make moves like that when you are close to a championship, but longer term they are not the right moves," Allen said. "Trading youth for veterans .
. . you have to be careful when you do it.
"
Despite the controversial trades, the Blazers' mind-set hadn't changed entering the 2000-01 season. They adopted a slogan of "One Team, One Dream," suggesting that the overload in talent of the team's NBA-record $89 million payroll could overcome personal agendas to unite for a title.
The Blazers sprinted to a 42-18 record, and on March 3 they held the top record in the Western Conference.
The Blazers imploded down the stretch, losing 14 of their final 22 games, to finish 50-32. In the season's final six weeks, the Blazers dropped from the top seed to the seventh.
The buzzword throughout the free fall became "chemistry," as the collection of former All-Stars, Olympians and lottery picks never could adhere to that "One Team, One Dream" slogan.
Smith, one of the most accomplished players on the roster, and coming off a summer appearance in the Olympics, was demoted to the bench in December in favor of Wells, a move that divided the locker room.
In January, Schrempf was brought back to the team out of retirement when Pippen went down with an elbow injury. Schrempf agreed to come back, but only under the condition that he could miss practices when he wanted to spend time with his family in
Again, the move splintered the locker room, which had nothing against Schrempf but didn't find the preferential treatment fair.
Then, on March 5, Whitsitt claimed Rod Strickland off waivers from
Whitsitt says he didn't want Strickland but made the move to appease the coaching staff, which wanted an insurance policy at point guard.
On March 6, the night after the Strickland signing, the Blazers celebrated Clyde Drexler's No. 22 jersey being retired.
The Blazers lost 105-97 to a Vancouver Grizzlies team that would win 23 games that season.
"A lot of us guys still talk, and we always think back to that game when they honored
"What people don't understand is that basketball is all about chemistry." It's not those players' fault, but what happened in the locker room after that, it messed everything up. It wasn't so much Rod -- people kind of accepted the fact Rod came in -- but when Detlef came back, guys didn't understand because it was like he was on a special plan.
"
"We were like 42-18 -- what do we need? Why are we making changes and tinkering with this team?" he said.
The increasing losses down the stretch were made worse in the final 10 days of the regular season. Kemp entered drug rehabilitation, Wells blew out his left knee and Wallace was suspended for the final game after throwing a towel in Sabonis' face during a timeout in a nationally televised game on Easter Sunday against the Lakers. After that game, Wallace charged at Dunleavy in the locker room, but never reached the coach as teammates restrained him.
A team supposedly set on a dream headed into the playoffs in turmoil.
And worse yet, their playoff opponent was a familiar nemesis: the defending champion Lakers.
The series was never close, as the Lakers won by 13, 18 and 13 in a decisive sweep.
"I'm a strong believer in team chemistry," Schrempf said after the season-ending loss. "You can have a lot of talent, but you can't just throw it out there and win. It's pretty embarrassing.
The playoffs were an accumulation of the last six weeks of the season: We basically fell apart."
"You can't have a geek show without a bunch of moronic carnival barkers.
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