(somber music)
- [Clara] In 2000,
the Portland Trailblazers nearly made the NBA finals,
and, while "nearly" stinks,
Portland's rise had been quick, intimidating,
and showed no signs of abating.
In 1999, they made the Western Conference Finals.
They were swept, but that's okay;
they were building something.
In 2000, it looked pretty complete.
Up against the Kobe-Shaq Lakers
in the Western Conference Finals,
this team wasn't getting swept.
Mike Dunleavy, coach of the year in '99,
orchestrated fluid lineups
with tons o' talent at his disposal.
There was leading scorer, Rasheed Wallace,
equal parts talented, passionate, and volatile.
Under the basket, you had Arvydas Sabonis.
The passing big man was 35
and still able to give Shaq the business.
The back court saw 5'10" scoring point guard
Damon Stoudamire split time with veteran Greg Anthony.
New to the squad in 2000
were all-star vet Scottie Pippen,
still trying to prove he could get a ring without Jordan,
and Steve Smith, who became the Blazers'
second leading scorer.
Off the bench, you had fan favorite Brian Grant
and the two young guns, Bonzi Wells and Jermaine O'Neal.
It was president and GM Bob Whitsitt who built this group
with help from the finances of the owner,
Microsoft co-founder, a billionaire, Paul Allen.
And this group was winning game seven
of the 2000 Western Conference Finals by 15 points
with 10 and a half minutes left.
The finals were in their sights,
but then LA went on a 15-O run and won.
In the fourth quarter,
the Blazers missed 13 consecutive shots.
But they weren't bad looks; it was just bad luck.
Dunleavy said he wouldn't change a thing about that game
because 99 times out of a hundred they'd win that game.
Portland's near finals birth in 2000
could have been the first stone
in a path to a dominant future.
If 99 out of a hundred times, they win that game,
hey, they'll get 'em next time.
That's math for you.
Shaq said he expected the Blazers-Lakers rivalry
to last his whole career.
But of course the loss and failure to make it to the finals
could be the first stone in a totally different path,
one that leads straight to hell.
(dramatic music)
While Dunleavy might've said
there was nothing he'd change about that game seven,
Bob Whitsitt disagreed.
To beat the Lakers in '01,
He wanted to get some players who could guard Shaq
behind Sabonis.
In a three team deal,
Whitsitt traded beloved Brian Grant for Shawn Kemp.
Kemp was more of a power forward than a true center,
but don't worry,
he had a history of handling all-star centers.
More concerning was his recent attitude,
the fact that he was pretty out of shape,
and his price tag.
But the Microsoft billionaire-funded team
paid for him anyway.
Whitsitt even got more Shaq protection,
trading Jermaine O'Neal for Dale Davis.
Davis was an all-star the prior season
and, most importantly, played well against Shaq
in the 2000 finals.
Sure, Jermaine O'Neal had potential,
but he barely got to play.
The Blazers weren't looking to nurture young guys.
They were looking to win a championship in 2001.
Their slogan for the year was, "One team, one dream."
That dream, a ring, seemed very doable.
The one team part might actually be a problem.
With the highest payroll in the league,
Whitsitt had assembled a team so deep
their bench was filled with all-stars and career starters.
Impressive on paper,
but hard to see how everyone was gonna harmoniously share
playing time.
But hey, Whitsitt, a professional general manager,
wasn't concerned, so it was probably fine.
And for the first half of the season,
it was better than fine.
At All-Star break, the Blazers were the best in the west.
Sure, there wasn't enough playing time for everyone,
and guys got mad.
Career starters Kemp and Davis didn't adjust super well
to coming off the bench.
Steve Smith slumped and got replaced in the starting lineup
by young Bonzi Wells,
which he didn't care for.
But here's the rub.
When your team's dominating left and right,
you can't really complain too much.
Or I mean, you can,
but nobody will hear you over all the cheering.
At the trade deadline, they were 38 and 17,
and Whitsitt said he wasn't planning on making any moves.
Why mess with success?
Why mess with success, Whitsitt?
He didn't make any trades,
but he did add more former all-stars
to a team that already had too much talent.
In late February, Pippen returned from injury,
but Whitsitt decided to sign his temporary replacement
for the rest of the year anyway,
so Portland had too many small forwards.
Stacey Augmon, who had played well in Pippen's absence,
was shoved to the end of the bench.
Then, on March 5th, Whitsitt signed Rod Strickland.
You know him, the consummate starting point guard
who had been the Blazers' facilitator in the mid nineties.
But what about their current starting point guard,
Damon Stoudamire?
Well, now he got to fear for his spot
and also spiral about whether or not the front office
believed in him,
as did backup point guard Greg Anthony,
who was injured but planned on coming back
before there were two guys ahead of him.
All the Blazers were on edge.
Management had sent several messages that they should be.
Dip in production; you could lose your starting spot.
Get a little hurt; you'd lose your backup spot.
Someone else gets hurt and you play pretty well?
We don't really care.
Play great on the number one team in the west?
Your starting spot's still not safe.
Portland, confidence shattered, lost five games in a row
after Strickland was added.
There was a palpable unease on the court.
When you're losing,
there's not much point in being humble and generous
or even quiet about your playing time.
On March 13th,
while the Blazers were losing a fourth game in a row,
Pippen was subbed out and said loud enough
for the media to hear, "Dunleavy can't coach."
Later in the game, Wells was taken out
and was a little aggressive about it.
Wallace would have gotten all the playing time he wanted
if it weren't for his ongoing battle with the refs.
So that's not helpful.
By the start of April,
the Blazers had fallen from first in the west to sixth,
at which point they were like,
"Hey, a team can suffer
from more than just chemistry problems,
and we'll prove it.
April 5th, Shawn Kemp left the team
and entered rehab for drug addiction.
People felt sorry for Kemp
and annoyed at Whitsitt for signing him in the first place.
Then, the very next night, Bonzi Wells tore his ACL.
His breakout had been one of the few bright spots
left for this team,
and fans couldn't even blame Whitsitt for this one.
It was just sad.
The Blazers decided to end the regular season with a bang,
and by "bang," I, of course, mean
the sound of a big explosion
that hurts your ears so much you puke.
In the second to last game,
Sabonis flopped and accidentally hit Wallace in the face.
During a timeout, Wallace screamed at him
and threw a towel in his face.
It was a bad scene that got worse after the game,
which was a loss, if you can believe it.
In the locker room, Wallace said he'd fuck up Sabonis,
to which Sabonis simply said, "I will kill him."
Dunleavy and Wallace got into it,
and that escalated to a point
where players were holding Wallace back,
and Dunleavy, head coach,
was yelling for them to let Wallace fight him.
They didn't listen to the head coach in this instance,
so everyone lived,
which is, like, the only nice thing I can say
about the Blazers' 2001 season.
Everyone lived.
They finished seventh in the west,
and now I have to talk about the playoffs.
If you're a Blazers fan and this is gonna be too painful,
maybe find a tennis ball to squeeze during this next part.
And also the rest of the video.
Opening round, they faced the reigning champion Lakers,
the team they were supposed to be rivals with
for Shaq's whole career,
the team that was supposed to be
their only obstacle to a title,
and they got swept, losing each game by double digits.
This team was a shell of their former selves,
and the shell had a dead hermit crab in it.
About a week after the season, Dunleavy was fired,
and, despite fan sentiment, Whitsitt got to stay
and see if he could clean up the mess he'd made of the team.
Before the 2002 season,
the Blazers lost a few guys to free agency,
Sabonis retired,
and Steve Smith and Greg Anthony were traded.
Whitsitt added Ruben Patterson.
A few months earlier,
Patterson entered a modified guilty plea
to third-degree attempted rape of his family's nanny.
Seattle waived him;
nobody else was interested, except the Blazers.
They wanted to give him another chance,
or didn't care about his legal issues,
or some combination of the two.
They also drafted power forward Zach Randolph
and hired first-time head coach Maurice Cheeks,
hoping the new crew could help right the ship.
A few months into the '02 season,
and the ship was just bobbing up and down around .500,
not doing anything except making fans seasick.
Wells and his repaired knee were a bright spot
until he gave "Sports Illustrated" a quote
about Portland fans' lack of support, saying,
"We're not really gonna worry
about what the hell the fans think of us.
They don't really matter to us."
Being as generous as I possibly can,
this is a young man saying he wouldn't be distracted.
He's just using the worst possible words to say that.
Oh, oh wait, there's more.
"They can boot us every day,
but they're still going to ask for our autographs
if they see us on the street.
That's why they're fans, and we're NBA players."
You know what?
I don't feel like being generous anymore.
Portland finished sixth in the west
and again faced Lakers in the first round.
They were swept again,
and games were characterized by some uncouth behavior.
Oh, and also during the playoffs,
Stoudamire was under investigation
for felony marijuana possession.
But hey, some of the playoff games were close,
players and coaches weren't trying to fight each other,
and Wallace only had 27 techs this year.
The '02 season counts as an upswing.
Still a far cry from 2000,
but you have to say, "The glass is one drop full,"
not, "That's an empty glass.
I don't want it; get it away from me."
Okay, 2002-2003.
How were the Blazers gonna capitalize
on this drop of momentum?
First, they got Sabonis to come out of retirement.
Then, they resigned Wells, who claimed a new attitude.
Whitsitt did, again, stockpile talent
with little regard for how they could possibly share
playing time,
but, honestly, the playing time disputes in '03,
of which there were a few,
would be the least of the Blazers' problems.
You may have heard of Portland's nickname,
"the Jailblazers?"
Well, the 2003 squad really leaned into that name.
In early November, Bonzi Wells was suspended
for spitting on Danny Ferry.
Ferry may have provoked him with a racial slur,
but that kinda got swept under the rug.
In late November,
Wallace and Stoudamire were pulled over for speeding,
and the cop smelled weed.
Wallace allegedly told the officer
he would not find any weed
because they had already smoked it all.
Wallace was incorrect.
Four days later, Ruben Patterson,
still on probation from the sexual assault case
back in Seattle,
was arrested for domestic assault.
His wife later asked for the charges to be dropped.
On December 20th,
the Blazers defeated Golden State on a 'Sheed buzzer beater.
All right, a moment for celebration.
And I mean a literal moment
'cause look over here at Bonzi Wells and Chris Mills.
And that turned into a huge, chaotic brawl.
I think someone picked up a chair right here?
Fans threw stuff at the Blazers,
and when a fan threw gum and swung at Rasheed,
he tried to climb into the stands
to sternly tell the guy that was inappropriate.
Wells was suspended two games,
and Wallace was fined 15K.
Quick good behavior break at the start of the new year,
probably trying to live up to their resolutions.
But then on January 17th, Wallace threatened a ref.
The ref had given Wallace
a questionable tech during the game,
and afterwards they crossed paths outside the stadium.
The ref said Rasheed raised his arms to hit him.
Sheed said he was just talking.
The ref was now-infamous Tim Donaghy,
but that didn't help Wallace's case at the time.
Wallace was suspended for seven games.
Fans were fed up with the Blazers,
and Pippen said they should be.
Portland's reputation was in the toilet of a public restroom
that had an "Out of Order" sign on the door
but was heavily used anyway.
But look at this, the Blazers were winning games.
At All-Star break, they were 32 and 16,
largely due to Cheeks making Pippen point guard.
And hey, if all those incidents didn't hurt
the win-loss record,
why behave any differently?
Don't wanna jinx it.
At the end of March, little used rookie Qyntel Woods
was pulled over for speeding.
The cop smelled and then found weed,
which is a familiar story with a less popular player.
It could blow over unless Woods did something memorable.
Yep, there it is.
Three days later,
Zach Randolph sucker punched Ruben Patterson
during practice,
breaking his eye socket.
Don't worry, the fight didn't escalate.
Ruben couldn't retaliate because he was still on probation.
If you're having trouble keeping track
of all of Portland's 2003 indiscretions,
just refer to this handy chart.
One thing that was definitely easy to miss in all the chaos:
Blazers finished one game better than last year.
In the post-season,
they fought back from three and O
to force a game seven with Dallas.
Randolph had a couple breakout performances,
but they lost game seven and exited in the first round
yet again.
If Portland wanted to hold on to the fans they had left,
something had to be done.
Three days after the '03 season ended,
Whitsitt resigned as president and GM.
His replacements insisted a new wind was blowing
and made a pledge to fans
that the salacious headlines were behind them.
The pledge would be slightly harder to uphold
'cause Portland lost two of their more mature guys,
Pippen to free agency,
Sabonis to a second and final retirement.
But the pledge would be really hard to uphold
'cause of players behaving the same old way.
In the third game of the 2004 season,
Bonzi Wells retaliated to hecklers with an obscene gesture.
They don't say which one, so just pick your favorite.
The team fined him, as if to say, "See, everyone?
This year is gonna be different."
In mid-November, Wells cursed out Cheeks
when he was subbed out.
The team took away his co-captainship
and suspended him for two games.
Wow, this year is gonna be different.
A couple of weeks later,
Zach Randolph was arrested for driving under the influence
of marijuana.
He currently led the team in points and rebounds
and was pretty much the guy keeping their heads above .500.
So new winds are blowing, et cetera, et cetera,
but management decided to hold off on disciplinary action.
And then everyone got distracted
because the next day they traded
the spitting, fighting, fan-alienating Bonzi Wells.
And that was considered the right move
for the long-term health of the team.
Certainly not the immediate health,
but fans didn't mind the record;
they just wanted this new respectable team
they were promised.
In other words, they wanted to dump
the fighting, tech-accumulating, ref-threatening
Rasheed Wallace.
When Portland traded Jeff McInnis, headlines were just,
"Ugh, why didn't they trade Wallace?"
In February, it happened.
They sent Sheed to Atlanta.
GM Steve Patterson announced
the dawn of a new era in Portland,
claiming the faces of the Jailblazers were gone.
In return for Wallace,
they got two former all-stars with stellar reputations.
Portland finished 41 and 41.
2004 was their first non-winning season since 1989,
but the organization didn't feel bad about it.
This was a rebuilding season.
The future looked promising, and fans were happy.
For a bit.
In mid-October,
Qyntel Woods was under investigation
for dog fighting and animal abuse,
which is a new crime for the Blazers,
but I don't think what GM Steve Patterson meant
when he spoke of a new era.
The Blazers suspended Woods indefinitely,
and he eventually pled guilty to misdemeanor animal abuse,
for which I hate him.
Once the '05 season got going,
the team struggled with injuries and also winning.
They fell 11 games below .500 in early March,
and Cheeks was fired.
New coach Kevin Pritchard surveyed the scene
and pronounced the season dead.
Instead, he used the remaining games
to get some experience
for the recently-drafted young prospects
Travis Outlaw and Sebastian Telfair.
Portland finished the '05 season with their worst record
since the early seventies.
At least rookie point guard Sebastian Telfair
developed nicely in those last months.
He was someone to build around.
What did that mean for free agent Damon Stoudamire?
He wasn't gonna stay where he wasn't wanted.
And the last player from that 2000 team
that was 10 and a half minutes away from the NBA finals
was gone.
But the hopes for that promising team died long ago,
pretty much the very next season.
And then the team just free fell until it flushed out
every last player who'd once sparked hope.
What did we learn along the way down?
Too much talent can actually be a bad thing,
as chemistry is very delicate.
We learned that reputation matters to fans,
and fans matter to an organization.
Your rep can get you traded.
And hopefully we learned not to speed
if we're smoking pot in the car.
Twice, they got caught that way.
The infighting and indiscretions
certainly made for a spectacle,
but let's take a moment to remember
just how good the Blazers were
before all that unsavory business took over.
They were title contenders,
title favorites to some,
expected to rival the Lakers throughout the 2000s,
the same Lakers who three-peated in 2000, '01, and '02.
The 2000 Blazers were a stacked team,
balanced perfectly for a moment in time.
That stack just proved too delicate to last.
Thank you for watching, my friends and enemies.
Remember to subscribe for notifications.
To see the Blazers at happier times, click here.
To see them at some more sad times,
we got that too.
For "Secret Base," I'm Clara Morris.
Good night and good game.